It’s winter at Harriton, and you know what that means – it’s concert time! On Thursday, December 13 at 7 PM, the instrumental musicians astounded relatives and friends who were attending for the first time and delighted former attendees with the magical moments that they produced once again.

Mr. Joseph and Ms. Bowman co-conducted multiple groups – concert band, jazz combo and ensemble, the string ensemble and the symphony orchestra – in thirteen pieces of music. Despite the week without power due to Sandy and two trombonists and football players down with concussions, the students gave a powerful, expressive show.

The finale, an arrangement of the popular Christmas melody “Carol of the Bells”, was remarkable in multiple ways. The song was composed by Harriton’s own Joey Jaspers, a pianist for the jazz band, as part of his IB Music class.

It was a formidable task, as parts needed to be written for all the instruments of both the band and the symphony orchestra! The constant revision process meant that the musicians had to learn new versions of their parts often.

Ms. Bowman was very happy with all of the groups’ expressive performances. On her favorite piece to conduct, the teacher said, “Both of the pieces [“St. Paul’s Suite” and “Rosamunde Overture”] I conducted were a lot of fun, although for very
different reasons. Rosamunde is great because it’s full orchestra, so
you have a huge range of sounds at your disposal. There’s also so many
different characters in that piece – there’s a lot of room for
expression. St. Paul’s Suite is just fun, and as a string player, it’s
the kind of piece you want to play over and over.”

St. Paul’s, like all the other songs, was definitely a piece that the audience wanted to listen to over and over. The thunderous applause that had hailed the ends of each instrumental piece also carried over to Sunday, December 16, at 3 PM, when the choral groups “decked the halls” with song.

Mr. Bizich conducted the Chorale, the Concert Choir, and Harriton’s newest ensemble, Vocal Jazz, in twelve pieces total. The freshman chorus were privileged to join the Concert Choir and learn from the upperclassmen. Pitch Please, the school’s one and only student-run a capella group, performed two pieces under the direction of Sophie Siegel and Emily Goldenberg, with solos by Emily Goldenberg, Tori Mueller, and Dan Rapuano that caused jaws to drop.

Unconventional arrangements of traditional winter songs like “Jingle Bells”, “Deck the Halls” (in tricky 7/8 time here) and “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy” were mixed with more popular selections like the scatted theme of “The Pink Panther” and Ingrid Michaelson’s “You and I”.

Before the beautiful gospel-style song “River in Judea”, sung by the Concert Choir, Mr. Bizich requested a minute of silence in honor of the twenty young children and six teachers who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting Friday. He dedicated the song to them, in the hopes that, as the lyrics say, “May the time not be too distant/When we meet by the river shore/Til then dream of that wonderful day/As we sing once more…” It was a special reminder that in the most difficult times, music can cleanse us and return joy to our lives.

Mr. Bizich was very pleased with the singers. He said to the freshman chorus, “All in all, it was a great success. You guys made the superintendent cry – he’s like the CEO of the company. I’m so proud of everybody.”

The freshmen’s families, who had never experienced a Harriton concert before, were blown away by the quality of the performance. One student even reported that her mother and grandmother were crying. All of the choral ensembles should be very proud of their ability to move people with their hard work and beautiful voices.

Another winter, another fantastic Harriton concert series. How can spring top this? Stay tuned (pun intended!) for reports on the spring instrumental concert on April 30 and the spring choral concert on May 7.

Special thanks for another great year to Kat Bowman, accompanist for the choral program; Asa Lipton, on lighting; Dr. McKenna, on sound; the custodial staff; the Harriton administration, and the Harriton Music Parents Association.