By: Owen Fugit

Editor-in-Chief

The LGHS Choral Department held its first concert of the year on Oct. 17. Featuring student soloists, songs that involved multiple choirs, and a wide variety of music styles, the Choral Department started the year off strong. LGHS Junior Nico Deschaux-Beaume explained how the choirs have been working tirelessly in preparation for the concert. “[We have been working] since the beginning of the year. First day we walked in, we picked up some music, started learning it right there and then.” The Choral Department also held its second annual choir camp earlier this year, organized by students with a record turnout of more than 90 singers.

For the Oct. 17 concert, the Choirs performed 11 songs in total, including Rasa Sayang, which Deschaux-Beaume noted was a “very challenging song in another language, [with] very hard rhythm patterns and notes.” He was grateful that they got started with the piece early in the year because it gave him more time to master the music. His favorite song was Tshotsholoza, which he described as “a very fun African piece.” Deschaux-Beaume is a member of the tenor-bass vocal range chorus group, which performed Tshotsholoza as well as various other pieces during the concert. The concert took place at the McAfee Performing Arts and Lecture Center at Saratoga High School. This venue hosts all LGHS choir concerts, as well as the band and orchestra concerts.

Earlier this year, the LGHS Choral Department hosted its second annual choir camp, facilitated in part by both Deschaux-Beaume and fellow LGHS Junior and three-year choir singer, Callan Robison. Both Deschaux-Beaume and Robison are members of the Choir Leadership Council, which is in charge of planning and running events within the Choral Department. Choir Director Maricel Riley oversees the Council, comprised of students from all choirs across many different grade levels. Robison explained that planning for the Choir Camp event began in earnest “about three to four weeks beforehand,” and required Choir Leadership to come in early and set up for the Sept. 14 event. Robison is the Choir Leadership Secretary, which means he takes “notes during all the meetings and makes sure that all the things that I take notes on, for example, future events or whatever actually happen.” This role also includes “following up with people like, ‘Hey, you told me in these notes that I took that you were going to do this. Have you done it?’” Robison noted that the setup for choir camp was more challenging “because this year we didn’t have a pool like we did last year, so we had to split up the recreational time into many more different stations, as opposed to just swimming together.”

The Choral Department is hosting its next concert in December, but between now and then, LGHS is sending 17 highly skilled singers to the Regional Honors Choir in November. They will learn six new pieces of music, and work with college-level coaches and choral directors over three days to perform in a public concert at Mission Santa Clara on Nov. 9.