The McLean Choir department truly cast a spell on the audience with their “Spooktacular” concert on Oct. 28. The concert was directed by Linda Martin and accompanied by Ed Roberts. The choir truly embraced the spooky season with iconic Halloween songs and fun costumes.
The concert opened with “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” sung by all ensembles. This piece featured a variety of vocals from all voice groups and pre-planned choreography. With a series of turns and steps the choreography of this number was truly unique and enjoyable.
“The choreography for the Ballad of Sweeney Todd really emphasized the spookiness of it,” sophomore Siena Raffo said. “It even made it more fun to really show some emotion.”
Another interesting piece was “Girl Scout” from Beetlejuice performed by senior Nicole Sterner with freshmen Sharona Rice and Keegan Park. This song was very interactive with a walk through the audience, acting elements and an ear-shattering scream. This piece really came to life was the performers ability to fully embody their roles which was captured in the series of solos that were performed.
“[Solos] gave everyone a moment to shine on their own,” sophomore Tate Lyons said.
This concert also featured newer hit pop songs like “Sexy” from Mean Girls and “Come Little Children” from Hocus Pocus. These pieces brought a unique feel to the concert by incorporating pop song elements as a lot of the music was more recent.
“Making sure we have a nice balance between the old and the new [songs] was really important when choosing pieces,” chorus teacher Linda Martin said.
A very unique factor of this concert was the performers’ costumes. In honor of true Halloween spirit, each singer got to wear their own creative costumes and even had the opportunity to participate in a choir wide costume contest. From the Founding Fathers, Patrick for SpongeBob and even the Mona Lisa, they had it all.
“The costumes kind of gave everybody individuality and let them express themselves,” Lyons said.
Even the parent announcer of the costume contest, Oran Sears, brought humor and liveliness to the concert by cracking jokes and keeping the audience engaged with the choir members on stage.
“He’s really just so much fun and engaging, and the perfect person to do a costume contest,” Martin said.
The final number of the concert was “Wait for me” from Hadestown which was a meticulous way to end the show as it was a piece from a modern retelling of the old story of Orpheus and Eurydice which many songs were also pulled from.
“The last two coral pieces that you heard were the same story, “ Martin said. “Hades town is a blues gospel style retelling of that old story.”
Overall, the McLean Choir spent countless hours crafting a concert that came together very well and was truly spooktacular.
