As the school year winds down, the Greenhill Singers choir is preparing to finish the year with three end-of-year performances in May.
The choir’s end-of-year schedule will start with their Spring Concert. The concert was postponed because of sound issues in Rose Hall; it will now be on May 9. The concert will be a dual event with a playwriting showcase, including big group songs, small group songs, and solos.
“With the spring concert, we get to let loose and have a lot more fun with what we are doing,” said sophomore Ruby Garza.
Their public schedule began with an April ISAS Fine Arts Festival performance. The event showcases work of students whose schools are members of the festival. This performance, titled the “Best Of” concert, featured various pieces that the group performed throughout the school year.
Freshman Izzy Shiloh participated in her first ISAS performance with the choir; Shiloh says her performance was fun and different from other choir concerts.
“We walked in, there was a larger crowd than we were expecting, but it was really nice to perform for so many people,” said Shiloh.
Typically, choir practices and performs in Rose Hall or the Dance and Choral Hall, at ISAS though, they performed in a chapel. Singers didn’t use microphones throughout their performance.
“The setting was really good because chapels tend to have really nice sound residence qualities,” Shiloh said.
Singers sang eight songs at their ISAS set, a few of them are from different movies. Garza said she was excited to perform these songs.
“We are looking forward to being able to sing some songs that are recognizable to a lot of the students listening,” said Garza.
Students also enjoyed watching other choirs of other southern schools and gained inspiration for the next school year.
“It was a really great opportunity for our young singers to experience different acoustical spaces, and to see all the different choirs with so much variety,” Choir Director Dr. Aprahamian said.
Now that their ISAS show is finished, the Choir has three concerts planned to conclude the year.
In addition to their Spring Concert, the Greenhill Singers will also participate in a performance at Baccalaureate on May 16 and the graduation ceremony on May 20.
Throughout the past year, Aprahamian along with the whole choir has been able to successfully organize the extensive collection of music from performances housed at Greenhill, resulting in the establishment of the choir library.
“We have an online catalog now where we can look up any sort of music, and they are all sorted very nicely,” Garza said.
With Aprahamian leaving Greenhill at the end of this year, Garza says she and her peers are sad but hope to continue Aprahamian’s traditions.
“We always take time to celebrate at the end of every year. It’s important to celebrate our accomplishments,” Aprahamian said.
A tradition that her students enjoy most is her pancake party at the end of the year. Because of Aprahamian’s departure, they will do it one last time with her.
“We’ve really been trying to make the most of the year,” Garza said. “We are going to try to hold on to all the traditions that she established here.”
