Choir celebrates fall festivities
Juniors Emily Tran and Pauline Yang sing “Hallelujah” as part of the fall concert.
October 12, 2016
To fully capture the somberness of the Fall season, the Diamond Bar High School Choir Department held their annual Fall Concert last Friday in an impressive show filled with a collection of traditional, serious pieces.
Unlike the choir’s usual showcases, last week’s performance involved many classical songs sung in Latin. During the concert, every group, including the beginning choir Diamond Tones, the advanced chamber choir Chamber Elite and the advanced show choirs Solitaire and Marquis, had the chance to demonstrate what they have been practicing since the beginning of the school year.
The show opened with a performance including every choir member, followed by an introduction to the individual department officers and Amanda Herrera, who is substituting for choir teacher Patty Breitag.
The all-female Solitaire then sang five pieces before Diamond Tones took the stage with three songs. After that came Chamber Elite with three songs, and the show ended with three songs from Marquis. In between every group performance, several students demonstrated their individual talents with solos as well as one duet.
Two especially attention grabbing pieces were performed by senior Ariana Gonzalez, who sang “Breathe,” and senior Allyson Cantimbuhan singing “Stand up for Love.”
During the multiple climaxes of the piece, Gonzalez’s rich voice held impossibly long notes and rose to powerful, emotional pitches that neither broke nor faltered.
Cantimbuhan, on the other hand, exhibited an incredible stage presence, often accentuating her performance with flourishes that displayed her confidence in front of the crowd. Her mature voice was especially noticeable as her wide range often moved from low to high notes while still maintaining her volume and pitch.
In addition to the time the students practiced during their class period, the choir members also attended after school rehearsals on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, sometimes staying for up to five hours.
In order to perform a solo, students had to audition with Herrera making all the final decisionst.
“A lot of these kids are really talented since most of them have been doing this for a long time,” Herrera said. “Many of these students are already very musically inclined and I don’t need to always be going over the basics.”
