Barbie, Ken, Buddy the elf and Santa lit up the performing arts center as Portola High choir members performed in “The Spirit of the Season ” annual concert held on Dec. 15. The Barbie-themed concert featured all five vocal groups along with the Beacon Park Choir.
The concert began with all the choirs and philharmonic orchestra “Somewhere in my Memory” from “Home Alone”, encompassing over 100 members on the stage. Veronica Grammier, Cale Kavanaugh, Anthony Pham and Desmond Stevens respectfully acted as Barbie, Ken, Buddy the elf and Santa for skits inspired by the Barbie theme between the songs in an expertly created and playful storyline created by choir director Adrian Rangel-Sanchez.
“I loved the Barbie theme,” soloist and sophomore Jaskiran Singh said. “The skits were so cool. I think because Barbie was so popular this year, it just made sense. I think our teachers played great actors.”
English teacher and track coach Cale Kavanaugh played the role of Ken in the choir concert. Performing in the concert allowed him to have a greater appreciation for his students and the arts according to Kavanaugh.
“My favorite part of the performance as a whole was being able to see students that I work with either in the classroom or on the track-just seeing a completely new dimension to who they are as people,” Kavanaugh said. “Seeing how talented they are musically, it was really fun to see how many of my student athletes that I’ve worked with can sing or play an instrument.”
Portola’s Treblemakers performed “I’m Just Ken ” from the Barbie movie, accompanying energetic dance moves which included flexing and jumping on the risers. This made for a well loved gem of the concert according to Kavanaugh.
One of the concluding numbers of the concert was “Silent Night” performed by Portola Singers, Canta Bella, Treblemakers and Philharmonic Orchestra. The choir program has a tradition of holding up candles during the Acapella section during Silent Night according to junior Joshua Shelly.
“Everything ended on a happy note,” Shelly said. “The storyline kind of wrapped perfectly. Something I liked was the incorporation of the songs, so when Ken stole all the presents, Santa said we needed to go on a sleigh ride to save all the presents and we started singing ‘Sleigh Ride’ which was really strategic.”
