A quiet auditorium. The lights dimmed. The audience sat on the edge of their seats. Chorus president Shaun Epperson stood up, and called out from the back of the house, getting louder as he approached the stage:
“You don’t know me, but my name’s Cy. I’m just the O’Hare delivery guy…”
And thus began the Huskafellas’ rendition of “Let it Grow” from “The Lorax,” one of many highlights of the annual Chorus Pop Concert.
“It started as a joke,” Epperson said. “In this class, the Huskafellas, it was like, ‘Let’s throw ideas. What songs do we want to do for Pop Concert?’ And we had options like ‘That’s What Makes You Beautiful,’ and ‘Stand By Me.’ And we had a bunch of good options. But in the end, the mass majority vote thought it’d be really funny to do ‘Let it Grow.’”
Planned and conducted by choral director Kayla Tassone and hosted by M.C.s Idika Banerjee and Michelle Henry, the concert, which took place on Oct. 16, combined beloved traditions from previous years with new costumes, choreography and music. The night consisted of 20 performances, all aligned with the theme, “songs about love.”
“Pop concert, it’s the most fun concert, in my opinion, of the whole year,” Voices of Hagerty member Sam Orne said. “Basically anyone can come together, whether you’re in chorus or you’re not in chorus, and you can sing songs from your favorite artist or favorite musical, based on the theme. It really is a lot of fun. It’s just very high energy and very inclusive.”
Though all choir students participated in the event through songs they prepared with their classes, students also had the opportunity to audition for solos and in small groups. To do so, they had to prepare a short (16–32-bar) segment of a song, and sing it in front of several judges, who determined which songs would be chosen for a solo slot.
Concert Choir began the night with a mashup of “ABC” and “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5, dressing in bright primary colors as an homage to the aesthetic of the ‘60s and ‘70s pop group.
“[The opening number] was really fun,” Epperson said. “We learned all the music in like four class periods, and then the rest of the time we spent doing choreo so that we could get it really down pat. As the first number, we really need to bring the energy so that everyone knows how the concert will feel.”
Then came several solos: Mitch Guttenbag sang “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley, Jolin Alcindor sang “Weak” by SWV and Sofia McLaughlin sang “I Choose You” by Sara Bareilles.
“I just love [Sara Bareilles’s] music, and I like singing her songs because I like what they mean,” McLaughlin said. “They’re more theatrical than normal pop songs, because she’s a theater girl. So that’s why I picked that one.”
The Hagerty Singers then performed “Rewrite the Stars” from the soundtrack of “The Greatest Showman.”
Epperson and Orne took the stage next to sing the duet “Dream Come True” from the movie “Zombies 4.” The two chose the song due to their love for the movie, and choreographed the performance themselves.
“We have been wanting to do that song together for any performance-based thing for a while,” Orne said. “He had already learned the harmonies. I knew the melody, and we basically got together and we sang it, and it was really good.”
Afterwards, Juliana Alvarez and Aditi Srisailam paired up to perform “Someone Like You” by Adele, with Srisailam playing piano while Alvarez sang. Then came Sabria and Amalia Sego, dressed in dark outfits and with energetic choreography to match the tone of “Take a Hint” from “Victorious.”
Banerjee and Henry introduced the Huskafellas’ performance of “Let It Grow” as a song about love for the Earth, maintaining the established theme throughout the night. The Huskafellas dressed up in movie-accurate costumes and took on the roles of different characters as they reenacted the film scene.
“I thought it was really, really silly,” Epperson said. “They took my mic pack, so I had to be pretty loud, because I started in the audience. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m one of you.’ That’s how that started. And then we kept singing and just vibing until I had to exit and become the Lorax. And I speak for the trees.”
Sloane Hockman, Payton Zeegers and McLaughlin sang and danced to “Super Trouper” by ABBA, Srisailam gave a solo performance of “When I Was Your Man” by Bruno Mars and the Chorale performed “From the Start” by Laufey as a whole class before Daphne Orlando sang “My Future” by Billie Eilish as a reflective piece demonstrating her own feelings about facing the future after graduation.
“I sing all the time, anyways: in my car, in the house, in my room, whatever it is,” Orlando said. “However, I think my most crucial point of practice is when I was audio splitting my song. Once I made the track, as long as I stayed on beat and I knew my notes, then everything is really smooth riding from there.”
After several more performances (Sabria Sego sang “Little Miss Perfect” by Taylor Louderman; Hailey Zeh, Evelyn Ortiz-Tatarka, Layla Dashi, Sam Relucio, Emily Peets and Anjali Ferrulli sang “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” from “Hercules”; the Voices of Hagerty sang an acapella version of “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King; Brianna Wunder sang “Gimme, Gimme” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie”; and Cristiana Shobe sang “Show Yourself” from “Frozen 2”), Tassone gathered the entire choir onstage for a round of “thank you”s. She then led them in singing “Happy Birthday” to Alvarez, who was performing on her birthday, and all of the classes joined together to end the night with “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles.
“Singing the group song was really fun, even though we didn’t have any choreo for that or anything,” McLaughlin said. “We were all just told to have fun. I was with my friends, and I thought it was really fun because we were doing random dances and stuff to make it more entertaining.”
Those who missed out on the show, or loved it so much they cannot wait for the next one can look forward to the Winter Concert coming up in early December.
