All-County chorus concert set for Thursday

October 16, 1998

By KATE COLEMAN / Staff Writer

photo: JOE CROCETTA / staff photographer

The middle school chorus will begin the annual All-County Honor Choruses concert Thursday night with a very upbeat "We Are The Children," singing positive things about the future.

It won't be the standard curtain opening on a bunch of singers just standing on the stage, says Dave Baker, teacher at Smithsburg Middle School and coordinator of the middle school chorus.

--cont. from lifestyle youth--

The 7:30 p.m. performance at North Hagerstown High School auditorium will feature a select group of choral music students from Washington County's public middle and high schools. The students, nominated by choral directors in their home schools, have been learning the music in classrooms since the beginning of the school year.

The middle school students rehearsed together last week, but they won't get to meet their all-county director, Kathleen Gabriele, until tomorrow evening.

Gabriele is working on her doctorate in choral education at University of Maryland and is on leave from her middle school chorus teaching job in Severna Park, Md. Gabriele says she'll be teaching some "choralography" - from-the-waist-up movements - and staging involving more than just the stage.

"I'm so excited," she says.

The senior high school chorus rehearsed together for the first time last week with director Gregory Shook. Shook is minister of music at John Wesley United Methodist Church in Hagerstown and music and artistic director of Hagerstown Choral Arts, a 100-member community choral ensemble.

The all-county concept wasn't around when Shook was a student at South Hagerstown High School, but he likes the program and thinks it's a great thing for the schools to come together. He says he's very honored to be directing the senior chorus.

The program is varied. There are classical pieces, spirituals, poems by Langston Hughes and William Blake set to music and a rousing "Waitin' for the Light to Shine," from Roger Miller's Broadway musical "Big River."

Hagerstown Choral Arts also will sing two songs.

The finale, performed by the combined middle and high school choruses, is "Hands United in Peace."

All-County Honor Chorus Concert

When: Thursday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Where: North Hagerstown High School Auditorium

1200 Pennsylvania Ave., Hagerstown
Admission donation: $4 in advance; $5 at the door

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