Choir made history during its annual Spirit of the Season concert on Dec. 6, selling out completely and exceeding the theatre’s capacity. All four choir levels were accompanied by Portobella, the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cadence Park Crescendos for a total of 250 performers.
“This year’s concert was 100% sold out,” musical director Adrien Rangel-Sanchez said. “We actually ran out of seats, and it’s really exciting, because it means that we had at least 700 people that came out to watch this show. It’s super fun for the students to have such a big audience.”
All five choir levels were individually featured in the concert, along with special appearances from Santa Claus (John Olivares), Elphaba (Veronica Grammier) and Dorothy (Tiernen Casillas).
The concert opened with combined choirs and the Philharmonic Orchestra performing “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. Throughout the concert, the choir performed pieces from the musical “Wicked” that were accompanied by a storyline crafted by Rangel to align with the “Wicked” theme. Rangel often centers the concert theme around relevant pop culture topics, such as his choice of Barbie last year.
“This year we decided, because the Wicked movie was coming out a week before our concert, that we would just do Wicked to tag along with the popularity of that show,” Rangel said. “We had a storyline that told a really bizarre, funny version of “Wicked” through Santa Claus. Obviously the audience loved it, and the students”
This year, choir performed a number of impressive pieces, according to senior, Portola Singer and Portobella director Sara Haidar. Haidar said that choirs perfected their pieces in a matter of weeks, putting in an impressive level of time and dedication for a performance that resonated with the audience.
“All the choirs really stepped it up this year,” Haidar said. “Portola singers are so unified and we’re all so committed to just putting in the work and getting it, and the other choirs as well. Canta Bella had one piece that lots of people love called ‘The Rose.’ I’m really proud of what everyone managed to do. This was definitely the best winter concert we’ve done.”
The concert, which traditionally ends with an encore of Jingle Bells, according to Haidar—a jolly good note to end on—performed a double encore at the audience’s request. Sophomore and Canta Bella singer Joanne Kim said that her favorite part of choir is seeing the audience’s reactions to the effort put in by the group.
“My favorite part of concerts is actually going up and performing and seeing the audience’s reactions,” Kim said. “There was really loud cheering, so it kind of showed the result of our efforts.”
