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Several choirs performed a variety of sacred and secular holiday selections
AUSTINTOWN
Austintown Fitch High School’s combined choirs sang in the Christmas season with energy, poise, tricky dance routines and well-performed sacred and fun secular holiday music.
Sunday’s concert at Fitch High School, “One Magic Christmas,” featured 250 singers, from freshmen to seniors, in several groups: Men’s Chorus, Women’s Chorus, Women’s Chorus I, Women’s Chorus II, and the elite 54-member Concert Choir.
The Fitch Vocal Music Department has dedicated the past 47 years to serving the Austintown community, said Bill Klein, the schools’ director of vocal music.
The mission of the Concert Choir is to entertain veterans at Veterans Hospitals and of the entire vocal music department to entertain those who have served, Klein said.
The Concert Choir will travel to Chicago in April 2016 to sing for hospitalized veterans, and the spring concert has a patriotic theme at which veterans are honored, Klein said.
Ken Jakubec of Austintown, who served in the Marine Corps from 1964 to 1968, was among the nearly 1,000 who attended Sunday’s concert.
Austintown choirs long have been entertaining veterans, Jakubec said.
“It is a great tradition that is well received. It gives the kids a chance to see what it is like and is a tribute to them for taking their own time to honor veterans,” Jakubec said.
Jakubec, whose children, Ken Jr. and Kim Lewis, both of Austintown, represent the family atmosphere that surrounds the vocal department.
He was in the auditorium to support and watch his granddaughter, Dannah Lewis, a member of Women’s Chorus II, perform.
“I love it. The music and choreography are good,” said Sandy Dunsieth of the concert, whose son Brice is a sophomore in the Men’s Chorus.
Polly Stanton said she is very proud of her grandson, freshman Paul Stanton Jr., who also sings in the Men’s Chorus.
There are other indications of the family tradition of singing at Fitch.
Kelly Vesey, a junior at the University of Akron, sang three years, 2009-2013, in the concert choir, was one of a handful of former members who accepted an invitation go up on stage and sing the traditional “Amen” with the concert choir.
She said the choir was a lot of work, but it was a good place to build lasting friendships.
Megan Ferguson, a gym teacher at Leonard Kirtz School, is engaged to Klein, both of whom sang in the Fitch choirs.
Klein has been with Austintown Schools vocal department for four years, three at the middle school and this year at the high school.
Klein said the choir members are the hardest working kids at Fitch. The Concert Choir is on the road everyday in December until Dec. 23 singing at nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and other community groups such as the Red Hat Society.
He had high praise for Sunday’s performance.
“They performed like professionals. That’s how I treat them in rehearsal,” he said.