St. Dominic has no shortage of talent, and the fullest extent of both talent and mastery was shown last night at the winter concert.
Leading off the evening was the Jazz Ensemble, who began their performance with Lady Marmalade and featured solos by Thomas Mullins and Sophie Wilson. Following this, the Jazz Ensemble performed a wonderful rendition of Open Arms by Victor Lopez. They concluded with Soul Chicken, with Thomas Mullins once again performing a solo and Hannah O’Brien offering one of her own on the sax.
Taking the stage quickly following the Jazz Ensemble was the Concert Band, who opened their set with John Phillip Sousa’s Semper Fidelis. Their second song would be Celtic Voyage, and would feature a gorgeous flute solo by Marianne Vomund, and they would close with a composition of highlights from the hit film The Wizard of Oz. Out of the songs picked for this group, it seems the man who selected the music had a favorite.
“All the music involved is great, but if i had to pick one, Semper Fidelis for sure because I am a huge John Phillip Sousa fan,” Music Director Mr. Cissell said.
St. Dominic’s band is a tough act to follow, luckily the choirs were up to such a challenge. First was the Chamber Choir, who opened with a spiritual piece, called Come, Sing Allelu! After following the spiritual piece with two Disney songs, those being Hakuna Matata and How Far I’ll go, the Concert Choir would perform a choral rendition of the highlights of Wicked. Finally, the final performance of the night came from the Chamber Choir, who opened with There is a Balm in Gilead a beautiful piece of music originally introduced to the choir by senior Liam Mcmullin. Following the chamber choirs take on Mark Hayes’ God is Our Refuge and Strength, they would end the concert with St. Dominic’s Blessing. Written specifically for St. Dominic by Dr. Gay Holmes Spears, it wasn’t the first of her works to be included in that evening’s concert, with said honor being given to her other piece being Sourwood Suite performed by the Concert Band.
The evening was a success, however it did not come easy according to Mr. Cissell. When questioned on the word or phrase he would use to describe the lead up to the concert, Cissell made it clear no performance worth giving happens without its share of hard work.
“I’d say the phrase for this concert is challenging definitely, I guess I’d attribute that to the snow days mostly because it cost us a lot of rehearsal time. On top of that I had to miss a few days myself, luckily all groups involved are hard workers and it came together to be a good concert,” Mr. Cissel said.
Mr. Cissell mentioned within his interview his major pride in seeing so many soloists in this year’s district solo festival go on to receive accolades. With 13 members of the performing arts receiving medals, and 11 going on to win gold and eventually perform at state, it is safe to say that the performing arts is alive and well here at St. Dominic. We can not wait to see what awaits them at state, the spring concert, and beyond.
