"First In the Fall" Concert Thursday Night at Simsbury High School

A free and open-to-the-public fall choral concert will be presented by the Simsbury High Music Department on Thursday, October 9, 2014. The concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the SHS auditorium and will last about an hour and 15 minutes.

The “First in the Fall” concert, the inaugural musical presentation of the 2014-15 school year, will showcase an eclectic mix of music and performances by five SHS choirs, all under the direction of Colleen Thompson, Director of Choirs.

The concert will also feature the debut of Simsbury High’s newest student-run a cappella group, Andiamo. Founded and directed by Kate Campolieta ’16, Andiamo, which means “Let’s Go!” in Italian, plans to live up to its name with a fast-paced, upbeat version of Bastille’s popular song “Pompeii” arranged for the group by Ms. Campolieta. The group, made up of freshmen through seniors, is comprised of students Brendan Barnard, Emily Bautista, Kate Campolieta, Katie Campson, Anna Cowley, Kimberly Day, Nate Donohue, Julia Dowd, Rige Grajcevci, Alexander Ging, Jacob Katz, Haley Latorre, Kaley Melanson, Kaela Morse, Caroline Pane, Kyle St. Sauveur, Grace Sullivan, Mallory Thompson, and Drew Zenick.

Andiamo joins two student-run a cappella groups, the men’s group, Unaccompanied Minors, and the women’s group, No Fella A Cappella, both founded many years ago by SHS students. No Fella A Cappella will be performing “Lollipop” at Thursday’s concert. The current group, led by Hannah Petruzzi ’15, Anna Ricciuti ’15 and Kristin Weiss ’16, includes Kate Angus, Hannah Cary, Olivia Coe, Maia Czaikowski, Zoe Eisenhaure, Naomi Garcia, Maddie Gastonguay, Emma Kyzivat, Katelyn Paddock, Maiya Pascouche, Brenna Pellon, Christine Schiller and Sarah Zahorodni. Unaccompanied Minors will make their 2014-15 debut at the upcoming “Men’s Night Out” concert on October 27. That concert begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Simsbury High School auditorium and is also free and open to the public.

The Freshman Girl’s Choir will open the evening with three pieces, including an arrangement of “Will There Really Be A Morning” based on the text of the well-known Emily Dickinson poem. The choir will be accompanied in this piece by cellist Scott Semanski, a music teacher at Henry James Memorial School. Concert Choir, the underclassmen all-male choir, will follow and also perform three pieces, one of which is also based on a poem, in this case “Come Travel with Me” by Walt Whitman. Student pianist Marc Sokolson will accompany the Concert Choir on this piece.

Treble Chorale, a woman’s performing group made up of sophomores, juniors and seniors, will perform several pieces, including one of Ron Nelson’s Three Mountain Ballads. Nelson, a contemporary American composer, took Appalachian folk songs and arranged them for choirs; Treble Chorale will be performing “He’s Gone Away,” one of the most haunting and beautiful.

Several classical pieces will be sung at the concert. Simsbury Singers, SHS’s principal 16-member female junior/ senior choir, will be performing Faure’s “Tantum Ergo,” the Mediaeval Latin hymn originally written by St. Thomas Aquinas. Versions of this centuries-old piece are often sung as a benediction; Faure’s version was written in 1904 and includes solos, which at this concert will be performed by Isabel Bielat, Maddie Gastonguay, Kate Campolieta and Sarah Zahorodni.

The final group to perform will be Chorale, the school’s primary mixed choir, all upperclassmen. Also performing three songs, Chorale will close with “Walk the Streets of Gold,” Andre Thomas’s rhythmically exciting, fast-paced arrangement of a classic spiritual.

The Simsbury High music staff and students invite everyone -- parents, students and members of the community -- to attend this concert and support music in our schools. The concert will be professionally recorded and copies of the CD can be ordered on Thursday evening.

Choirs in Order of Appearance:

Freshman Woman’s Choir: Alana Barker, Sarah Bonchick, Erin Brett, Nicole Briand, Sophie Capobianco, Samantha Chesanek, Emma Conroy, Bailee Cota, Anna Cowley, Emme Crystal, Sydney Daoud, Hannah Denhof, Maria Diaz-Islas, Katherine Dzenko, Mary Firestone, Carolyn Flammini, Madeline Gamer, Meaghan Ging, Molly Grossman, Laure Guilbert, Angelina Hartnett, Rebecca Hartnett, Maria Hodson, Ava Kahl, Hannah Kovel, Haley Latorre, Emily McMann, Kaley Melanson, Katie Palms, Caroline Pane, Lindsay Paquette, Katherine Robinson, Grace Rogers, Grace Sullivan, Mallory Thompson, Sophie Thompson, Rige Grajcevci

Concert Choir: Timothy Amarell, Benjamin Armstong, Brendan Barnard, David Black, Nolan Carrier, Jarin Daniels, Matt DeAngelo, Cameron DeLo, Luke Gilmore, James Huang, Joshua Keene, Kenan King, Brendan McDermott, Andrew Mylander, Cameron Rosenthal, Nicholas Sandborn, Sean Sinacori, Marc Sokolson, Kyle St. Saveur, Tyler Thomas, Christopher Wildman, Drew Zenick

Treble Chorale: Cate Alix, Camryn Aponte, Sarah Baierwick, Madison Bailey, Rachel Baumann, Emily Candels, Allison Colglazier, Belen Dumont, Maya Eckert, Zoë Eisenhaure, Katie Euting, Shannon Frasca, Naomi Garcia, Sienna Golden, Maddie Haas, Taylor Jackson, Tiarra Jackson, Katie Keene, Sophie Levesque, Paige Lindsay, Alex Marecki, Lucy Merriam, Jaylynn Moffat-Mowatt, Gabby Ostrov, Sarah Poirot, Devon Shugdinis

Simsbury Singers: Kate Angus, Isabel Bielat, Kate Campolieta, Olivia Coe, Maia Czaikowski, Emily Fritz, Madeleine Gastonguay, Halley Haruta, Allison May, Kaela Morse, Hannah Petruzzi, Casey Root, Sarah Ursini, Kristin Weiss, Dana Winslow, Sarah Zahorodni

Chorale: Melissa Acheson, Kate Addis, Rachel Aponte, Ana Ashchepkova, Grace Bailey, Jameson Boeshans, Ian Braverman, Justin Butchyk, Paula Cameron, Hannah Cary, Ian Cosgrove, Kimberly Day, Taylor Denges, Nate Donahue, Julia Dowd, Grant Duford, Gabriel Garcia, Alexander Ging, Brian Hanshaw, Emma Hardee, Gerald Jackson, Jacob Katz, Jessica Kull, Emma Kyzivat, Grant Lammey, Austin Lazo, Jacob Lill, Patrick Lyman, Guiliana Marchetti, Jack Medve, Carolyn O’Seep, Katelyn Paddock, Maiya Pascouche, Brenna Pellon, Anna Ricciuti, Allison Salina, Christine Schiller, William Shaw, Kaylee West