March 17, 2006
For immediate Release:
2006 Williamsport Area School District All District Choral Concert
The Williamsport Area School District’s Music Department will present its Thirty Third Annual All-District Choral Concert at 7:30 PM on Monday, April 3, 2006, in the Williamsport Area High School auditorium. The event concludes the District’s celebration of “Music in Our Schools Month”. The concert is free to the public and features the slogan “Music, the Heart in Education.
The program will showcase the talents of over 450 students, grades five through twelve, and is offered as a “tasty sampling” of the District’s comprehensive choral program. Featured groups and ensembles will include the Elementary Honors Choir, the Sixth Grade Honors Choir, the Seventh and Eighth Grade Honors Choir, Williamsport Area High School’s combined choirs, GQ, Les Chanteuses and the Millionaire Singers.
The theme of the evening is “Music of the World”. Music from many countries and influences will be showcased including England, Ireland, Wales, Mexico, Cameroon, Jamaica, Germany, Brazil, East Africa, South Africa, Serbia, and the United States.
The evening will open with the combined choirs singing the Cameroon processional “Louez le Seigneur”. The Elementary Honors Choir will present "Music is a Common Language", based on Welsh melodies; "Freedom is Coming”, depicting people's frustration with apartheid, a national policy of racial segregation once associated with South Africa; and “Child of the World”, written in tribute to a teacher who always encouraged her students to reach for their dreams.
The Sixth Grade Honors Choir begins with the 1940’s jazz standard “Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy” followed by the Arabic folk song “Golden Sands” and “Niska Banja”, a gypsy folk song and dance popular throughout Serbia.
The Seventh and Eighth Grade Honors Choir will present "The Little Beggarman", an Irish folk song that relates the tale of Old Johnny Dhu, a wanderer who makes his way across the countryside performing his dance in exchange for food and shelter. Additional selections include the rousing Jamaican song composed and made famous by Harry Belafonte, “Turn the World Around”, and the traditional African-American spiritual “Praise His Holy Name”.
Selections performed by the combined WAHS Choirs include “Nia”, the Swahili word for purpose; “Dies Irae” from Mozart’s Mass For the Dead or Requiem; and “Cielito Lindo”, a Mexican folk song with live Mariachi Band accompaniment. Featured numbers by the WAHS select ensembles include “What’ll I Do?” by Les Chanteuses, “Grumble Too Much” by GQ and “Rio” by Cherry, White and Blues.
The evening’s program will conclude with the combined choirs joining to sing the song made famous by Louis Armstrong, “What a Wonderful World”.
The WAHS Music Department is celebrating its fourth consecutive year as a Grammy Signature School Finalist and, also for the fourth consecutive year, Williamsport was selected as one of the “Best 100 Communities for Music Education in America”. For additional information contact: Richard Coulter, WASD Music 570-327-5500 ext 3518 rcoulter@wasd.org
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