On December 5th and December 12th, Hayesville High School and Hayesville Middle School’s band and chorus performed some jolly tunes. The band’s winter concert came first; a few weeks later, the chorus concert came along. Everyone did a great job, doing their part with pride. With the band playing around 20 different tunes, and the chorus even having their very own dance, called “Hot Chocolate Dance”, it was an enjoyable time and amazing to witness.
The Hayesville chorus group was directed by Elizabeth Moss, who directed 18 different songs. The songs were divided into 5 sections, 3-4 songs in each set. The sets included the “Salute to America and Our Veterans/Patriotic Set,” “Folk Style Set,” “Festive Favorites,” “Movie Favorites,” and finally the “Seriously Sacred Set.” In the “Salute to America and Our Veterans/Patriotic Set”, the songs “Land that We Love,” “God Bless America,” “Of Thee I Sing, America!”, “How Can I Keep From Singing?” and “July”. The “Folk Style Set” included “Hands,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and “Dust in the Wind.” Fun fact, “Can’t Help Falling Love” was performed by Savannah May with the accompaniment of HHS student Austyn Anderson. “Honestly I felt nervous. I had never done a full song solo like that and I felt pressured to do the song justice. After I sang for a bit, I started to feel more comfortable and confident,” Savannah mentioned. They both did amazing and blended well together. The “Festive Favorite Set,” included “Best Day of My Life,” “The Bells of Christmas,” and my favorite out of this set, “Cuppa Cappuccino.” The “Movie Favorites Set” had a small group performance with Sky Harmon, Georgia Inglima, Savannah May, and Autumn Shook singing “Cup Song (When I’m Gone)”. In addition, the songs included, “A Million Dreams,” “Where Are You, Christmas?” and my all-time favorite of them all, “Hot Chocolate,” which had a small dance to it, which was performed by Logan Cummins, Sky Harmon, Georgia Inglima, and Mimi Myers! And for the final set, “Seriously Sacred Set” the last four songs performed were “Call to Advent,” “Alleluia Round,” “Shepherds Go Tell,” and the last song, “Witness.” Everyone in the chorus did an amazing job; keep up the amazing work!
The HHS band concert was directed by Alexis Dockery. The 6th-grade band played four different songs, which included “#23 March Steps,” “#25 Lightly Row,” “#30 London Bridge,” and “#38 Jingle Bells.” In between the first two, different solos and small groups performed. The instruments used in the 6th-grade band were Flutes, Oboe, Clarinets, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Trumpets, Trombones, and Percussion. The 7th-grade band also played four different songs, with small groups and solos in between. The songs played were “Holiday Bobsled Run,” “Dance of the Jabberwocky,” “Waltz of the Carols,” and “Bad Elf.” The instruments used to play these amazing songs were Flutes, Clarinets, Alto Saxophones, Trumpets, Trombones, and Percussion. Now. let’s put the spotlight onto the 8th grade and the High School band, as they performed most of it together. The instruments that were played were Flutes, Trumpets, Clarinets, Alto Saxophones, Tenor Saxophones, F Horn, Trombones, Euphonium, Tuba, and Percussion. The songs that were played were “Three Minute Nutcracker,” “The Moon of Winter,” “Gesu Bambino,” “C Jam Blues,” “White Christmas,” and finally “Christmas at the Movies.” My personal favorite was “The Moon of Winter.” It was so beautiful. According to sophomore Maya Polk, “The Three Minute Nutcracker or Gesu Bambino was the hardest to master. For the Three Minute Nutcracker, there were multiple different pieces, time signatures, and speeds that we had to learn and mesh together. For Gesu Bambino, all the flutes had different parts and no one to conduct so learning how to keep in time with one another and fit our separate parts together to sound like the piece proved to be a challenge.” Everyone in the band did an amazing job; everyone was amazed.
Both of these concerts were played wonderfully, you could visibly see the hard work that was put into these songs. Both concerts made me shed a tear, I’m proud of everyone who performed. Keep up the hard work, and I can’t wait to see what is played next!