LCHS Chamber Singers showcase programs, talent for elementary students
La Cañada High School’s Chamber Singers channeled the holiday spirit Friday, performing for local elementary school students in a series of concerts that aim to entertain but also inform them of many singing opportunities that await them in seventh grade.
At their first stop at La Cañada Elementary School, choral Director Dr. Jeff Brookey led a group of about 30 high schoolers, who shared their inspired take on creative classics — from “Carol of the Bells” to “Hanukkah, O, Hanukkah” — while students in third through fifth grades sat rapt in attention.
The festive school-site performances coincide with the high school’s annual Holiday Choral Concert, which takes place Dec. 13 at Pasadena’s First United Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m.
In between songs Friday, Brookey shared with kids some of the exciting places where high school choral students get to perform, eliciting oohs and aahs from the audience when he described an upcoming trip to Hawaii.
Junior Maggie MacKenzie, backed by senior Langdon Dearborn on guitar, thrilled students with a solo performance of “I think it Must be Christmas.”
After a duo, senior Matthew Baker and junior Allison Rayer explained why more than 345 LCHS 7-12 students attend classes in the department.
“Choir is a really good opportunity for you to meet all these people and make friends with them and be in a community,” Rayer told the kids.
“You also have a lot of travel opportunities,” Baker said, listing junior-high excursions to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. “I’ve been to Italy with the choir, and I went to France last year.”
After a brief Q&A session, and taking multiple requests from the audience, the Chamber Singers closed the set with “Holly Jolly Christmas” before hopping back on their bus and heading off to Paradise Canyon Elementary for the next leg of their brief holiday tour.
