Tri-Valley’s high school chorus performs for an audience on March 16. Their next concert will be May 7. (Photo/Adisen Stadem)

Sara Stadem | Editor

Tri-Valley band and choir, grades 9-12, were able to join together to host a concert on March 16 at the Tri-Valley gym under the direction of Vocal Music Instructor Bernard Van Moer and Band Director Michael Hoffman.
The concert kicked off with the high school band performing four pieces, two of which were to be performed at last spring’s concert in March that inevitably got cancelled due to COVID-19, according to Hoffman.
“We decided we wanted to perform a few of the pieced we had been working on last spring and picked two of them along with two new pieces that we started working on in January,” Hoffman explained.
The theme for the band side of it was A Night at the Movies. The band played songs of movie themes from Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers, Polar Express, Back to the Future and more.
The Tri-Valley choir group has been hard at work for this concert, starting practice back in January at the start of the third quarter, explained Van Moer.
According to Van Moer, the theme for the night, on the choral side, was elements (earth, water, fire and air) and they did songs that incorporated the differently earthly elements. They had two curricular choirs perform separately which consisted of four pieces by their Mixed Choir group and their Auditioned Chamber Singers performed a total of five pieces.
Since the pandemic, this was the first concert that has taken place without a voucher being required. When asked if the attendance was at an increase because of it, Van Moer said, “It’s hard to say, we had a bigger crowd for sure but this was also a concert with the high school band. So, some of the audience was there for the band as well.” He continued, “I’m glad to see people coming back to the concerts and supporting the music department. It is fun to get to sing in person again.”
Hoffman also agreed it was hard to determine if the bigger was due to the vouchers being lifted. “This was our first time holding a concert with just our high school ensembles, so it is hard to say if there was a difference in crowd size based on not having required tickets for attendance. We encouraged wearing masks because we knew there would be a good-sized crowd for our larger high school groups,” Hoffman said. He continued, “We were grateful to see the stands filled in support of our high school ensembles!”
Van Moer concluded, “Overall the concert was good. I told the choir during our rehearsals before that this concert was probably the most prepared that we had ever been. A few hiccups here and there but for the most part we were happy with our performance.”
Hoffman added, “I think the concert went well. We had been working on the music for some time and the students were excited to perform. It is always fun to play songs you recognize form your favorite movies.” He continued, “Also having prepared two of the four pieces previously last spring allowed us to focus on some new areas to make better and fine tune our playing.”
If you missed this concert, you will have one more opportunity before the year is over. Each the band and choir will host another concert coming up in May.
On May 3, there will be a concert showcasing all the Tri-Valley bands, grades 5-8 and high school. There will also be a small awards ceremony for the high school band during this concert where seniors will be recognized for their four-year accomplishment of band.
The choir will perform once again on May 7 when they hold their Vocal Pop’s concert with all of their choir as well, grades 5-8 and high school. The choir concert will also recognize the seniors during the concert.