By: Ainsley Northrop and Owen Fugit

People and Editorial Editor

On Jan. 18, the Los Gatos High School Music Department hosted eighth-grade students from Fisher Middle School for their annual recruitment event. This LG music festival served as a chance for incoming freshmen to bond with current music students and gave them a chance to experience performing in a high school ensemble. 

Select students worked alongside LGHS Music Administrator Wendi Redo and the music teachers to run the event. Upperclassmen guided the eighth graders through the day, checking them in, helping with music, and ensuring they felt included. Senior Logan Campbell, the president of choir leadership, detailed, “[First], we hosted a meeting with choir leadership to discuss…our outline for the event. Then people volunteered for roles to run at the event like presenting to the parents or running icebreakers. It was really a team effort.” 

After school ended, students met in the music building for roughly two hours of rehearsal. This allowed eighth graders to learn how in-class rehearsals function and prepare for the upcoming concert. To create a welcoming environment, choir leadership organized get-to-know-you games and created a mixed seating chart alternating grades. Following a successful rehearsal, all music students enjoyed dinner while watching the winter color guard’s showcase.  

For the parents of incoming freshmen, the concert offered an opportunity to learn more about the choir program. Parents asked questions and attended a presentation before the show to better understand the program at LGHS. Parents also got to see how their students fit in with the other students in choir, creating a better understanding of the people in the program. 

The concert consisted of a handful of songs. The Mixed Choir sang Fire, and the Women’s Choir sang Singkap Siaga, but the highlight of the show was the two combined choir songs, which featured both Fisher and LGHS students. The songs Oceans and Stars and I Love You/What a Wonderful World resonated well with the audience, who saw and heard the incoming freshmen sing for the first time with the more familiar LGHS choirs. 

Fisher Choral Director Corey Miller chose Oceans and Stars and conducted it at the show, bringing a new energy to the LGHS choirs, who are used to direction from LGHS choral director Maricel Riley. Fisher students loved performing with LGHS, and both groups got along well, creating a sense of community. LGHS students enjoyed working with the eighth graders. Junior Ava Delaossa remarked, “it was fun getting to work with the eighth graders and kind of see who was going to be coming into choir next year.”

The event was inspiring, uplifting, and fun for all who watched and performed, forming early bonds between the incoming freshmen and the current choir students at LGHS.