Spring-Ford Music Ends March on High Note!

Monday night March 25^th at the Spring-Ford HS 10-12 Center was the “Spring is Coming” concert.  The evening opened with the 9^th Grade Concert Band under the leadership of Mr. Seth Jones.  The band played two pieces opening with a newer band piece by modern composer Travis Weller, Jubilant Flourishes just published in 2012.  The young high school performers then presented music from “West Side Story” arrangement by Jay Bocook from the original score by Leonard Bernstein.  The 28 freshmen with added upperclassmen performed nicely and got the evening off to a good start. 

Next on stage was the Symphonic Band made up of 84 students in 10^th thru 12^th grade.  This highly experienced group opened their segment of the evening performing John Zdechlik piece “Chorale and Shaker Dance” featuring several soloist thru out the piece.  The band next presented the Warren Barker arrangement of the award winning music “Les Miserables” by Cameron Macintosh.  This piece, much like the “West Side Story” presentation by the Concert Band, featured many of the memorable musical themes from these two wonderful musicals.  The music of “Les Miserables” also feature a number of Spring-Ford’s talented musicians thru out.

After the bands performed the audience moved to the gym for presentations by other performance ensembles made up of the music department in the high school.  Leading off was the new Spring-Ford Dance Team made up from the membership of the winter guard program under the direction of Mr. Thomas Vandergrift and Jason Hall.  The first year group performed they production “Time Goes By” showed great promise for the future with only two senior members out of the eleven members in the ensemble.

Next to perform was the Winter Percussion ensemble made up of 30 students performing their challenging and fun filled production “There’s Always 1”!  This production written by their director Mr. Mark Thurston along with staff Dennis Siller (SF Grad), Adam Bailey (SF Grad) and Eric Mailloux is made up of all original music based on the idea that in every group there is always one that marches to their own drummer.  Filled with a lot of high speed movement, exciting/interesting staging of features for all sections they had the audience highly involved in their presentation.

Closing out the evening, but not the musical week, was this year’s winter guard presentation under the direction of Mr. Thomas Vandergrift and assistant Jason Hall “The Audition:  I Wanna Be a Star” performed to music from “A Chorus Line”.  This year’s production made up of 17 members also is showing strong growth this winter with only two senior members bodes well for the future.  Performing this fast pace show, which shows strong dancing skills, along with equipment excitement thru out this presentation is very audience friendly and provided an exciting end to the evening. 

This March concert is new this year and showed off the multi skills of the winter instrumential department that Spring-Ford HS has to offer the students and community.  Mr. Jones stated early on in the evening that he is looking to make this concert something that can be held each March to show the community the talent in the SF Band programs.

Tuesday night the 26^th the SF 9^th Grade Center was the sight of the “Music In March”, A Night to Celebrate Music In Public Schools featuring the Spring-Ford High School Vocal Ensemble and the Spring-Ford  Middle School Choir and the Gold-n-Blues.  This concert celebrating music in public schools is part of the National Association for Music Education which has denoted the March of March as “Music In Our Schools Month”!

The evening of music was opened by Soprano Duet by Ms. Kayla Dwyer and De De Kimble accompanied by Mr. David Nicol (retired SF Vocal Director) as they showed off their talents by performing “Laudamus Te” from Gloria written by Antonio Vivaldi.  These two young ladies will be performing in Washington, DC later this spring were they will show their talents off for all to hear.

Next ending the stage under the direction of Mr. Robert Bennett Jr was the 7^th/8^th Grade Choir.  Mr. Bennett handling these duties this year had the choir performing “How Can I Keep From Singing”, words by Robert Lowry followed by a totally different music style presented “Ave Verum Corpus” by Wolfgang Mozart, arranged by John Leavitt.  The choir was accompanied by Mr. Jim Meade.  These young vocalists showed their skills and strong training while performing their part of the program.  They followed these two numbers up with “I’ll Make the Difference” by Moses Hogan and closing with “An Irish Blessing” arranged by Donald Moore.  Ms. Sonal Tyagi, Natalie Popky along with Olivia Riordan did a very good job as featured soloist during “An Irish Blessing”.

Taking the stage next also under Mr. Bennett’s direction was this school years Gold-N-Blues Choir.  Made up of a number of students also in the 7^th and 8^th Grade Choir, these students auditioned to be part of this select group.  They opened performing a challenging piece by David Frunner, “Yo Le Canto Todo El Día” which they performed very well.  Call for the student to not only sing but handle multi meter changes while also clapping thru some of the segments also.  Next they performed again with piano accompanist Mr. Jim Meade the choir performed “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Billy Rose and Harold Arlen which was arranged by Steve Zegree which was then followed by “I’ve Got the World on a String” by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen, arranged by Steve Zegree also. Soloists during the Gold-N-Blues were Rebecca Bahlm and Taylor Ruffo.  The evening ended for the Gold-N-Blues performing “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” an African-American Spiritual arranged by James DesJardins.  The choir performed this number while accompanied by their director Mr. Bennett on piano with great fire and excitement closing their part of the evening on a real high.

Next to the stage was the Spring-Ford HS Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Mrs. Yvonne O’Dea.  This talented group will be performing also later this spring in Washington, DC for all to see and hear the talented students that make up Spring-Ford HS.  These talented students showed their talents as the opened with Thomas Morely’s, “Fyer, Fyer, Ny Heart which showed the strong blend and balance of the choir.  Next Mrs. O’Dea had the choir perform one of her personal favorites “A Rose in the Deeps of My Heart” by Jonathan Adams which provided a beautiful musical presentation very different and emotional.  The next number “Afternoon on a Hill” by Eric Barnum was accompanied by SF Freshman, Dan Callos who did a wonderful job, while blending nicely with this talented choir.  The Vocal Ensemble closed performing Traditional Spiritual arranged by Jack Halloran, “Witness”.  This piece the choir like the Gold-N-Blues closed showing great emotion and excitement as the ended a wonder evening of music as they headed home for their Spring Break.

For all those in attendance on Monday and Tuesday evening they were rewarded with evenings of wonderful music.  The citizens of the Spring-Ford School District are luck to be able to enjoy the true talents of the student that make up the district.

Article By:  George Growcott/SF HS Marching Band Cood.

Photos By:  Andreina Erwin