On Nov. 30, the Grandview Heights Singers kicks off the holiday season with a free performance at the Grandview Heights Public Library.
The full 2014-15 Grandview Heights Singers ensemble, dressed in concert attire. Photo courtesy of Andrew Grega
The group – an elite, audition-only chamber choir – features 34 students from Grandview Heights High School. They will give between 15-18 performances this season alone. But, says Andrew Grega, vocal music director at the school, the students don’t mind the breakneck schedule.
“They really look forward to that time,” Grega says. “I give them a little survey at the end, and it always pops up as a favorite.”
This year, the Singers’ schedule includes performances for special groups, luncheons and retirement homes, as well as a repeat performance at the Ohio Statehouse. When selecting venues, Grega’s concern is locating spaces where the Singers can sound their best.
“I like to try and find spaces that are acoustically interesting to sing in. The Statehouse is a neat environment,” he says.
The Singers also receive frequent invitations from audiences to come back the next holiday season. For 12 years, the group has been performing for the Seton Square-North retirement community, one of its most appreciative audiences.
“Those people love for us to come up every year, and it’s something they look forward to. It’s always a nice event and causes the students to get emotional,” Grega says.
Grega adds that while the holiday program changes year to year, the group performs a few traditional staple songs, such as “Carol of the Bells,” during which all of the group’s alumni are invited to join them on stage.
To Grega, putting together the holiday program is both difficult and rewarding. While creating the set, he has to consider the group’s abilities as well as the style and variety an audience will appreciate.
“I like to program things the audience will recognize, and definitely things that are going to challenge the ability of the group. I have to know what they can do to help them grow.”
While Grega says this year’s program is a work in progress, he has already thought of ways to make the season memorable for students and audiences.
“We do a mixture of a lot of classical choral music that is seasonal and some unseasonal, maybe from the Renaissance,” he says. “We also do some lighter contemporary numbers, maybe some vocal jazz. We have an open program with ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ in Latin segueing into a new avant-garde arrangement. I like to find new gems students like.”
For the Singers themselves, performing during the holiday season allows them to hone the choral skills they have developed in the classroom, such as vocal strength and confidence, intonation skills, tone, style concepts, and listening to one another.
Above all, Grega hopes to cultivate in his students a lifelong love and appreciation for music.
“My mission for them is to help them build the skills and realize this is something they can do outside of school. They can go on to other choirs successfully because of their time in this program.”
Jaya Pillai is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
