Concerts Mark The Winter Season Across The District

By Eliza Hallabeck

Sandy Hook school fourth grade students listened as Maryrose Kristopik, their music teacher and director for their Winter Concert, told them what the most important thing for their upcoming concert performance would be.

“The biggest thing you have to remember is pizzazz,” Ms Kristopik told the students on Friday, December 11, just before the fourth graders sang a practice performance for the rest of their school community.

Across the district the past two weeks have been filled with the voices of students under the guidance of their music teachers.

Sandy Hook’s fourth grade chorus sang songs including A New Year’s Wish, Light The Candles Around the World, and I Have A Little Dreidel.

Hawley School third and fourth grade students practiced before their peers on Tuesday, December 7, during an assembly in the school’s gymnasium. Music teacher Cynthia Holberg oversaw the students as first the third graders sang songs, including I Heard A Bird Sing and Velvet Shoes, then the fourth graders took their place on stage to sing songs, including Oh, Every Morn and Christmas Shopping Blues.

Newtown Middle School’s eighth grade band, orchestra, and chorus members filled the auditorium at Newtown High School on Monday, December 14, for rehearsals for their then-upcoming concert.

Buses brought students from the middle school to the high school for the rehearsals, and periods four and five at the school were switched to accommodate the students’ lunches on that day.

NMS seventh grade band, orchestra, and chorus members had their chance to rehearse at NHS on Thursday, December 17. Again, students of the individual music groups were bused from the middle school to the high school for their rehearsals, but, due to timing, no special arrangements were needed for scheduling at the school.

“I think all of the concerts have been really outstanding,” Head of the Newtown Schools Music Department Michelle Hiscavitch said this week, “and the quality of the concerts continues to rise.”

Between the December and January concerts across the school district Ms Hiscavitch said roughly 1,600 students will be performing. With five more concerts scheduled in January, Ms Hiscavitch said the winter concert program is at the half-way point.