Choir’s Winter Wonderland
December 16, 2015
What better way to get yourself into the holiday spirit than with the sound of sleigh bells jingling and the Diamond Bar High School choirs singing? Earlier this month, Marquis had their Winter Winds concert and then joined Solitaire, Chamber, and Diamond Tones for the complete choir department concert on Dec. 10 -11.
The Winter Winds concert opened with a few slower songs to ease the audience into the Christmas spirit. Wasting no time, they then dove head first into a medley of 21 Christmas classics, featuring many solos. The songs ranged from the lighthearted “A Marshmallow World,” complete with a jaunty dance by Larry Chen and Jacob Loor, to the hauntingly beautiful “Once Upon a December,” from Disney’s “Anastasia,” sung by Mary Thomas.
From there, the mood quickly switched, and the audience was suddenly transported to the South, where choir president Nicolas Zhou invited them to join him at the Christmas party down at the bar. After setting the scene, he joined the rest of Marquis on stage, as they sang songs like “Country Christmas Tree.”
After the intermission, Marquis returned with traditional choral songs before returning to the upbeat atmosphere.
As the concert drew near its end, Gabby Thornock sang “The First Noel,” and reminded the audience that many of the greatest Christmas songs have their roots in the story of an infant king being born in a manger. Thus began the singing of a series of sacred carols, including, “Away In a Manger,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and “O Holy Night.”
Ending the night on a high note, Marquis tried to fit in any last few Christmas favorites that they missed, into 30 seconds.
“One special moment was when we sang ‘Home for the Holidays,’ and that’s the piece where the veterans were all in the front and it was just fun to dance with my friends for the last part of the show,” junior Allyson Cantimbuhan said.
This past weekend, all four choirs came together for their combined show. Marquis performed excerpts from their Winter Winds concert, while the other choirs performed their songs for the first time.
The show began with the combined choirs singing a mashup of “We Need a Little Christmas” and “Let it Snow!” Then the Solitaire ladies took the stage with the classic “Winter Wonderland,” which they sung acapella. For their premiere of the night, Chamber sang “Patapan,” a French Christmas carol. The highlight of the night for Diamond Tones was their endearingly choreographed performance of “Little Saint Nick.”
“I think ‘Santa Baby’ was the hardest song because we really had to build up our stamina for the choreography,” sophomore Solitaire member Stephanie Tang said.
Soloist Arianna Gonzalez earned loud cheers for her effortless performance of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” as did Hannah Prince for her performance of “Ave Maria.”
Each group performed several more traditional choral songs before the concert ended with the annual performance of the chorus of hallelujahs from Handel’s “Messiah.” During that final song, the audience was asked to stand as alumni joined the choirs on stage.
