Jamie Lammers, Nederland. Last week, student musicians from Nederland Middle Senior High School gathered for the first set of concerts of the 2019-2020 school year. The events started on Tuesday night, when the middle-level band, middle-level orchestra, and high school orchestra performed their concert. The event started with the high school orchestra, who played Dia de Los Muertos, a traditional Celtic prayer called Deep Peace, and This Is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Following them was the Twintet Quartet, consisting of Emily Geels, Jake Geels, Aya Pelkhum Donahue, and Keahi Pelkhum Donahue, playing sections of the score from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The middle-level band then stepped up to the stage, performing a traditional pep band song called Let’s Go, Band, a rock and roll song titled Hey Song, and Dragons of Komodo. The middle-level orchestra then performed Fire in the Bow before joining the high school orchestra for a fun ‘50’s monster movie homage, Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space, to finish the show.

The events continued Wednesday night when students from the elementary school held their own choir concert. The children came to the middle-high school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon for the 2019 choir camp, which culminated in a concert with high school singers on Wednesday evening. They sang fun and upbeat songs like Phineas the Frog, more dramatic songs like The River is Flowing, and tongue twisters like Unique New York. The kids enjoyed learning what it’s like to be part of a choir and the high schoolers had a blast joining them in these fun songs.

Directly after the elementary choir camp concert, the middle and senior high school choir concert began. To open the concert, the orchestra made a surprise guest appearance, playing with the Loquations as they sang the words to Deep Peace. After the opening number, the concert alternated between the 6th and 7th Grade Choir, the 8th Grade Choir, the Festival Choir, and the Loquations. The 6th and 7th Grade Choir charmed everyone with their performances of Flying, the May Erlewine song Never One Thing, and the immensely fun jazz piece Alright, Okay, You Win. The 8th Grade Choir let loose with their rendition of Duke’s Place, reflected life during the introspective Who Am I?, and uplifted the audience during The Rain Came Down.

The Festival Choir overcame their small size and demonstrated how big they can actually sound while singing She Sings, Come in from the Firefly Darkness, and the James Brown classic I Got You (I Feel Good). Finally, the Loquations hooked the audience in with their acapella performances. These included an English madrigal version of the late-90’s song All Star (yes, the one by Smash Mouth) and the return of a special arrangement of Imogen Heap’s Hide and Seek. It also included a nursery-rhyme-based patter song titled Who Killed Poor Robin?, which might be one of the most difficult songs the Loquations have ever performed.

The first set of concerts is always one of the trickest concerts of the entire year for Nederland musicians. After a long break from school, it sets the stage for the pieces to come in the future. With these concerts, Nederland musicians started off the school year with a bang, and it’s exciting to see how the performances of each of these groups will develop over the course of the school year.

(Originally published in the October 31, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)