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The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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Small ensembles, big fun: Concert on May 21

The five a cappella groups of Palo Alto High School Choirs will face off for the best overall choral group on 7:30 p.m. on May 21 in the Haymarket Theatre.

“All of our a capella groups perform — including our Madrigal singers, our spectrum singers — and our concert choir, most likely will perform a pop song,” senior Choir President Jamie Garcia said. “It’s a very fun concert for people who are not into choir music but still want to support choir.”

Seniors Jamie Garcia, Claire Chevallier and Casey Glassford sing with sophomore Katie Hetterly at the Pops Concert. The Heartbeats have won awards at the past two small ensemble concerts. Photo by Alex Merkle-Raymond.
Seniors Jamie Garcia, Claire Chevallier and Casey Glassford sing with sophomore Katie Hetterly at the Pops Concert earlier this year. The Heartbeats have won the Mary Hewlett award for the past two small ensemble concerts. Photo by Alex Merkle-Raymond.

The a cappella groups, which include Froshapella, Vikapella, Heartbeats, Heartbreakers and Folk Yes, will be competing against each other for the Mary Hewlett award, a symbol of the best overall a cappella group at Paly, according to Garcia.

According to choir director Michael Najar, Mary Hewlett, an establishing Heartbeat from 2004, went on to study music at the Westminster Conservatory of Music. The award serves as a reminder that this is one way to pass on the tradition of music.

“The last concert we just had was an epic face-off between Bach and Beethoven, while this one is quite the opposite — it’s a bit more casual,” Vikapella senior Will Kast said. “We had the concert choir performing huge pieces, but for this one, we have the small ensembles take the spotlight. There is an external judge who will rank the a cappella groups, and it should be a lot of fun.”

Senior Sally Wang sings a solo with the Madrigal singers. The Madrigal singers will be performing pop songs instead of the Bach and Mozart songs like at the last concert. Photo by Alex Merkle-Raymond.
Senior Sally Wang sings a solo with the Madrigal singers at the pops concert earlier this year. Unlike last concert where the Madrigal singers performed Bach and Mozart songs, they will now be singing famous pop songs. Photo by Alex Merkle-Raymond.

Khori Dastoor, a soprano at the Opera of San Jose, was chosen to judge the concert because the face off has become too big for solely the choir directors to judge it, according to Najar.

The small ensembles concert is free and seating is first come, first serve.

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