Midway through the month of December, York High School’s chorus students amazed the community with their vocal performances. The YHS chorus presented two holiday concerts this year, on December 12th and 19th at 7:30 p.m. These concerts not only included performances from the chorus class, but also pieces from the treble choir and chamber singers accompanied by pianist and community member Debbie Clough. 

This year’s holiday choral concert began with a brief performance by chamber singers Morgan Keene, Lexi Reilly, Macy Young, and Harper Howell, who performed ‘Star Carol’. They were then joined on stage by the rest of the chorus as they sang ‘Silent Night’, surrounding the audience with candlelight. After the completion of these renditions, the chamber singers exited the stage for the treble choir to present four more songs: ‘Wondrous Morning Star’, ‘Song for Christmas Day’, ‘On Christmas Night’, and ‘Love and Mercy’. The York High School chorus, which is composed of students in their first semester of the class, then took the stage to perform ‘Betelehemu’, a Nigerian holiday carol, ‘Ahrirang’, a Korean folk song, and ‘Winter Wonderland of Snow’. The chorus was then followed by six more songs by the chamber singers, including ‘I’ll be Home For Christmas’ and the Choral Suite from “Frozen”. Finally, the program concluded with ‘There Has to Be a Song’ by Andrea Ramsey performed by the entirety of the singers. 

Teacher and director of the chorus programs here at York High School, Robert Westerberg expressed his overall satisfaction with the chorus’s performances, as well as his hopes for the group to continue to improve. “I think the first chorus concert went well, but I don’t think any of the three groups would say it was the best we are able to do,” Westerberg stated. “That’s actually the reason we have two concerts- to revise and bring it back to see how we can improve after fine-tuning it.” Many of his students expressed similar sentiments, with chamber singer Harper Howell commenting, “The chorus concert went swimmingly. All three groups, (the chorus, treble choir, and chamber choir), displayed all of the musicality they learned this semester with Mr. Westerberg.”

The YHS chorus program has even more holiday festivities planned for the rest of the month. On December 22nd, you can find the choir caroling popular christmas songs throughout the York Elementary, Middle, and High Schools as well as the York Town Hall.