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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Canfield Village Middle School’s sixth-grade students Ryan Schneider, left, and Stephen Maszczak paired up for a duet during “Jingle Bell Boogie” at the school’s annual Winter Choir Concert Dec. 5.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Canfield Village Middle School’s fifth-grade choir, under the direction of Tom Scurich, celebrated the holiday season with music and singing during the school’s annual Winter Choir Concert Dec. 5.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Under the direction of Tom Scurich, Canfield Village Middle School’s sixth-grade choir performed several selections during the school’s annual Winter Choir Concert Dec. 5.
By ABBY SLANKER
Canfield Village Middle School’s fifth- and sixth-grade choirs, under the direction of Tom Scurich, celebrated the holiday season with music and singing during the school’s annual winter choir concert on Dec. 5. The students performed to a standing room only auditorium packed with family and friends at Canfield High School. Courtney Larson accompanied the choirs on piano.
Scurich welcomed the audience to the concert.
“Good evening and welcome to our fifth- and sixth-grade winter choir concert. The first selection of the fifth-grade choir is by Randal Thompson, the finest American composer of 20th century choral music. The second selection is a Columbian carol and the third selection, “Hanukkah Shalom,” is a piece showing the love and peace of the holiday. The fourth selection is an African-American spiritual. Spirituals are a very important part of American history and are the foundation of American music,” Scurich said.
The fifth-grade choir opened the show with “Solstice” by Randall Thompson, followed by “El Pequeno Nino,” arranged by Ruth Dwyer and Henry Leck.
The choir continued the show with “Hanukkah Shalom” by Ruth Elaine Schram and Linda Marcus and closed their portion of the performance with “Child of God,” an African-American Spiritual arranged by Emily Crocker.
Scurich then introduced fifth-grader Anthony Mazzella to perform a piano solo of “Song of Kilimanjaro,” arranged by Nancy and Randall Faber.
The Canfield Cambiata, comprised of seventh- and eighth-grade students, then took the stage to perform “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by Vince Guaraldi, arranged by Steve Zegree.
Scurich then introduced a second piano soloist, Mallory Stilson, playing “The First Noel.”
Canfield High School’s One Octave Higher Ensemble, under the direction of Kelly Scurich, performed “Shepherd’s Carol” by William Billings and “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus,” arranged by Kirby Shaw.
While the sixth-grade choir took the stage, Scurich led the audience in a sing-a-long of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Johnny Marks, “Frosty the Snowman” by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” by J. Fred Coots.
The sixth-grade choir began their portion of the concert with “Christmas Fanfare” by Jay Althouse and continued with “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost and Vera Kistler.
The choir then performed “Minka,” a Russian folk song, arranged by Jill Ann Jones. The sixth-graders closed the concert with “Jingle Bell Boogie,” arranged by Larry W. White, with a duet from Ryan Schneider and Stephen Maszczak.
Student accompanists included, fifth-graders Emma Drombetta, Anna Kerns, Simon Kovass, Anthony Mazzella, Vivian Nohra, Mallory Stilson and sixth-graders Dylan Aubel, Alexander Calder, Madison Murphy and Madeline Ross.
“Thank you for being a wonderful audience tonight. Also, thank you for supporting your children and the arts at Canfield Schools. I am so proud of these kids. Their skills are really coming along and I am looking forward to seeing these skills progress throughout the year,” Scurich said to end the evening.