If you weren’t able to tell by the many announcements made two weeks ago, vocal jazz auditions were held the night of Monday October 1st in the choir room. Vocal jazz is a new group run by Mr. Bizich that meets after school and during some RAM periods. This group has taken the place of the chorale, which used to meet Monday nights from 6-8 PM, but is now its own class that has been built into students’ schedules.
There are two groups that make up vocal jazz. The first group is the bigger ensemble of thirteen people; the second group a quartet, which means one person per vocal part (there are four people total). While a smaller group may sound easier to manage, this is actually much more difficult. A small group leaves less room for error and requires each singer to be able to hold his or her part without other singers to fall back on if a mistake is made or a note is forgotten. Ben Appel, Marcel Werder, Victoria Marks, and Hannah Cooper will be singing tough, close-knit harmonies a cappella, which is difficult for any singer. The bigger group, consisting of Ben Appel, Hannah Cooper, Sage Davis, Nolan Gardner, Julia Kotler, Peri Leavitt, Victoria Marks, Conor O’Brien, Olivia Prendergast, Jackie Scheiner, Ben Seltzer, Max Sokoll, and Marcel Werder will be singing a very similar style, but there will be more people in each part to help each other out.
Throughout the years, Harriton has had an outstanding music program. This new group will undoubtedly meet its high expectations and continue to showcase the abundance of talent that Harriton possesses.