Fine Arts Lunch Performance ‘Rapped’ up the Semester with Holiday Tunes

Kayleen Kim and Ryan Jung|December 16, 2021

Attracting many students to the lunch performance event in the beginning of lunch, ASB president and senior Amitoj Singh sings “thank you, next” by Ariana Grande. He sings while the orchestra, band, and choir members get set up to perform right after.

Choir and orchestra ensembles played holiday and pop tunes at the lunchtime fine arts performance on Dec. 10 in front of the dance building, offering a sneak peek of the ‘Spirit of the Seasons’ vocal concert that took place that evening.

In this unique performance, ASB and the choir and orchestra showed festive holiday spirit through collaborations that have not happened before in the past. ASB started the performance off with ASB president and senior Amitoj Singh singing “thank you, next” by Ariana Grande. The performance included an instrumental and voice collaboration of symphonic orchestra, wind ensemble and choir, performing “Jingle Bells” by Love to Sing. The event also showcased talented singers, such as juniors Klara Parang and Amara Trias, who performed “traitor” by Olivia Rodrigo, and sophomore Kapil Ramasubramanian, who sang “This is Christmas” by the Goo Goo Dolls. To end the lunch off, ASB came back on stage with boys’ athletic commissioner and junior Jayden Villanueva and staff liaison and junior Jett Fukuda sang “When I Was Your Man” by Bruno Mars.

The performances allow students to choose songs while having the flexibility of a diverse range of genres, according to fine arts commissioner and senior Puneet Singh.

“I think in terms of making these artists happier, like the singers and dancers, it’s really great because they feel like they’re finally getting their voices heard or they’re finally being able to show their talents, which they’ve really been working on,” Singh said. “There’s a lot more emphasis on maybe sports or other events that are more publicized, but people don’t realize how great the fine arts programs are at Portola.”

Musicians also found lunchtime performances to be opportunities to perform for the first time in a supportive environment, as was the case for Portola Singers tenor and sophomore Kapil Ramasubramanian, who sang “This Is Christmas” by the Goo Goo Dolls.

“I was a little bit nervous because I’ve never done something like that on my own,” Ramasubramanian said. “But later, close to the end of the song, a lot of people were really nice and were cheering me on. My friend who I’ve known since elementary school came up to me and said that was a really good performance and that he was recording, so I felt good hearing that.”

Juniors Klara Parang and Amara Trias sang “traitor” by Olivia Rodrigo together. Leading up to the performance, the duo faced obstacles with the song’s technical demands, with it being sung a cappella and from the chest voice due to many note jumps presented, according to Parang.

“Honestly, I would just put my best into it next time, give more dynamics to my voice,” Parang said. “I didn’t really care what anybody else thought, and I just was in the moment. I think that’s the most important part.”

While performing before such a wide audience was stressful for Parang, she said that having supportive friends to cheer her on allowed her to perform her best.