With the Fall concert approaching, the vocal groups have been putting in time and effort in preparation for their first performance of the new school year set for Oct. 16. The campus choral department Fall Concert will be held at the Bridge Church, beginning at 7 p.m. The choir and auditioned groups are made up of 67 students who will be showcasing their work in the evening?s event.

Music Director Michael Ogdon is thrilled to present the new choir for the school year of 2013-’14. He has great ambitions for what the choral department has to offer, and what opportunities the year will bring them. He has been preparing for many months now on new pieces of music, even bringing back old songs from previous years.

“Our choral groups have been rehearsing, memorizing and perfecting the songs they will share for nearly two months now,” Ogdon said. “Daily rehearsals during the class periods assigned to each group give us focused time to work together.”

The Celebration Choir is excited to get its first taste of performing, in front of a real audience as a new choir. After belonging to last school year’s choir, which consisted of 80 students, choir member Collin Winegarden, ’15, has assimilated to the new formed choral group despite a longing for a stronger impact.

“I personally don?t like the new choir,” Winegarden said. “It doesn?t have the same dimension as last year’s did. I really enjoyed the feeling of greatness last years choir had, but I have been learning to embrace this years group.”

Senior choir member Amanda Menes, is excited to participate in the fall concert and showcase their works in front of people.

“I?m so excited,” Menes said. “This concert sets the tone for all the rest of the performances to come for this school year. We get to display all of the music we have been working on for a couple months now.”

The Celebration Choir has been spending a majority of their time on songs that involve the learning of a new language, and expanding their knowledge of music.

“Each group has a wide variety of material to present,” Ogdon said. “I am hoping the highlight will be the Maurice Durufle rendition of ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ a piece the Celebration Choir will sing in French.”

With this concert being the first music performance of the year, Ogdon expects a lot out of his students.

“Performances always lift the level of involvement and dedicated effort towards a unified goal,” Ogdon said. “Live audiences inspire most to a better result. The first concert of the year serves to give the choir a warm up for festival participation through late October and early November. It also introduces many supportive families to the beauty of choral music, something some have not heard a lot of until the student signs up for ‘choir as Bible.'”

Choirs next performance will be at California State University, Fresno for the CSUF Choral Festival, Oct 24.

This author can be reached via Twitter: @ivettedibarra. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.

For more news, read the Oct. 11 article, BRIEF: Parent Teacher Fellowship to host annual Fall Festival.