Forrestdale Students Swing in Spring During the Annual Spring Concert

With the sound of the trumpet and the beat of a drum, students sung and played the night away during their annual spring concert last night in the Forrestdale Gymnasium.

The night began sharply at 7:30p.m. with a performance from the advanced and intermediate band under the direction of Forrestdale teacher of the year, John Lebitsch, with an unforgettable jazz piece of "Jazz Band Jubilee" arranged by Steve Frank.

"I wanted to expose all kids to jazz, although we have a jazz ensemble, I wanted all students to have the opportunity to play jazz," said band teacher John Lebitsch.
Followed by programmatic suites traveling the audience through time and place from Paul Jennings' "Prehistoric Suite" to the  "Train Heading West and Other Outdoor Scenes" arranged and composed by Timothy Broege.

The performance continued with "The Dark Crusader (March)" composed by Donald Bonfire in a sixth-eights tempo, a rocking cover of the sixties song "Born to be Wild" and the traditional eighth grade recessional song "Forrestdale March" which has not been played during the Spring Concert since 2004.

The Advanced Choir under the direction of Stefani Curley was next to take the stage with fifty-five students ranging in grades five through eight, the students belted their way through "The Water is Wide (Waly, Waly)" arranged by Ruth Elaine Schram and repeated their performance from Tri-District choir competetition performing Africa originally recorded by TOTO.

The Advanced Choir ended the performance with a rendition of "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" off Billy Joel's Greatest Hits album.

Jazz Ensemble under the direction of John Lebitsch jammed the evening to a close with Jazz classics such as "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" by Bob Russell and Duke Ellington with student solos by JC Liang, Tucker Briggs and Owen Doherty, and "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)" arranged by Mike Lewis.

The final of the evening was the fast paced and high-spirited "Tequila" composed by Chuck Rio. Students had the opportunity to show off their improvisational skills including solos by Mackenzie Dalrymple, Matthew Kho, Ryan Berry, Jeremy Johnson and Coleman Gould.

Principal Jennifer Gibbons said the student's performance was a great display of their hard work. " It was tremendous...They came in earlier than their peers, worked hard during class, and even sacrificed some of their recess, the students were great," Gibbons said.

Lebitsch said the band started preparing for the show back in February and worked until the very last minute to rehearse.

"We weren't 100 percent ready until this morning. We held an additional practice this morning to rehearse," he said. "The students worked very hard."

Advanced Choir students, AJ and Abby Kelly said they weren't nervous to perform because they rehearsed many times before. "We came in before school two times a week and this week three times a week for dress rehearsal," said sixth grade student, Abby Kelly.

 "The hardest part was harmonizing with the different sections like the altos and the baritones," said seventh grade student, AJ Kelly.

Choir director, Stefani Curley was very happy with the student's performance. "The student's [performance] was excellent," Curley said. "They have been practicing since February only to take a break to prepare for Tri-District competition. They were just great."

Parents agreed that the performance was flawless. "It was great. This is why we need to keep fighting to keep music programs in the schools," said Stuart Aderoty, whose son Hank plays percussion in the band.

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