By Siena Small
All four South chorus groups came together for their first concert of the year last Wednesday. Each group sang several songs, and at the end, all sang two songs together.
All in all, the concert “went really well,” according to freshman Yuval Dinoor, a member of the Vocal Ensemble. “All of the groups sounded good and it was an overall good first concert.”
The choruses had two joint songs even though they had never practiced together, meaning about 90 other kids were singing onstage. They received an encore after finishing.
The event left freshman Abby Lass, another member of Vocal Ensemble, “in some ways unified because in this concert all of the groups that performed sung two songs together at the end and this was something new that they tried and it went well.
“I don’t know a lot of them, and the only time we’d ever rehearsed was about an hour before the show, but it was impossible not to feel a sense of unity when we all suddenly came together.”
Although this concert did, in a way, unify the groups, many members said they did not feel they had a chance to form any concrete relationships with others.
“It’s not that the others are cliquey, but the fact that we had never been together as one big group only highlighted the boundaries between us,” Dinoor said. “Some freshmen are intimidated to talk to the older kids, so I think it would have been nice if they had done some practice together before show night.”
Another freshman and member of Vocal Ensemble, Rebecca Reinstein, agreed.
“Before the concert started we all went into the chorus room and we all warmed up with our songs with Mr. Youngman. But there wasn’t that much interacting,” she said.
Dinoor also felt that her age group, which corresponds to less practices, being two times a week as opposed to the older students’ four, and simpler music, seemed at a starkly different level compared to the other groups.
“We were at a clear disadvantage, and while we weren’t at all bad, our performance reflected that,” Dinoor said.
Even though this experience wasn’t as unifying as hoped for, Dinoor recognized that there would be other chances in the future.
“As the year goes on, we will do more things together with other groups, like a field trip to the house of blues, so I think that we will bond,” Dinoor said.
“Overall, I think it was a well-done concert but the freshmen didn’t get nearly as many opportunities as everyone else,” she said.
