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By Bill Van Tassel
SOUTH PARIS — Just as choral director Dennis Boyd raised his baton for the Oxford Hills High School music department’s Fall Concert Celebration, director Kyle Jordan’s cellphone went off.
Jordan answered, the audience didn’t know whether to laugh or raise their eyebrows. It was all planned, of course, just one example of the sense humor displayed by the two music teachers that evening.
As usual these days, the audience was asked to turn off the cellphones. “We’d like the music to be coming from the stage and not your pants,” they were told.
On a more serious note during the concert, Jordan shared with the audience how pleased he was with the hard work of the musicians.
“It’s incredible that this early in the school year these kids can play so well for you,” he said. “They don’t just play, they practice hard, get both excited and frustrated during rehearsal time.”
The concert in five parts featured the chorus under Boyd’s direction. Selections were sung four different languages. A large chorus for a high school, the performers sang with great dynamics and attentiveness.
Their program started with the audience standing while the national anthem was sung. The high school choir sang the Latin chant “Kyrie Eleison” (Gregorianus) and the German “I Will Rejoice” (Ich will den Herrn loben) by Teleman. The special Chamber Choir followed with two selections: “Personent Hodie” and an Elizabethan song by Ralph Vaughn Williams, which was well done with great harmony.
Retired teacher and strings specialist Cynthia Wescott introduced the string quartet that she mentors. She explained that a quartet does not have a director, rather the four players are supposed to be in an intimate conversation with each other. After doing a Mozart piece, a second quartet joined the first to play the “Evening Prayer” from Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel. Many skills were demonstrated by the students with pizzicato and tremolo sections, as well as each player taking the lead line in solo.
The program closed with Jordan directing the full string orchestra in three selections: “Appalachian Celebration,” “Early American Folk Hymn” and “Spartacus.”
All parts of the concert got a standing ovation.
CAPTION: Choral director Dennis Boyd comes on stage to begin the choral part of OHCHS Fall Celebration. Several selections were done employing the languages of Latin, German and Italian. (Bill Van Tassel photo)
