{"id":30,"date":"2011-05-20T17:47:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T17:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/2011\/05\/20\/gloria-williston-singers-and-musicians-outdo-themselves\/"},"modified":"2011-05-20T17:47:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T17:47:00","slug":"gloria-williston-singers-and-musicians-outdo-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/2011\/05\/20\/gloria-williston-singers-and-musicians-outdo-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Gloria: Williston Singers and Musicians Outdo Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seniors are counting down the days until Commencement<\/a>,<\/strong>AP exams are still on everyone’s minds, and I can’t walk across campus without seeing at least three flyers for various senior projects. It’s certainly a busy time here in Easthampton, but even in the middle of all of the frenzied activity, it is worthwhile to pause for a moment and celebrate the talent and beauty that abounds in the Williston community.<\/p>\n

\"ChorusThis week I had the opportunity to enjoy the spring choral concert, which featured the strains of Vivaldi’s Gloria<\/em> performed by the Teller Chorus. This was one of those musical performances that transcend single sensory perception. Those of us lucky enough to be there—and I counted more than 100 students, parents, and faculty in the Chapel—heard wonderful voices, accomplished musicians, and audience approval, but we also felt<\/em> the music. It was that moving.
 
Williston’s singers and musicians outdid themselves in both preparation and performance, and demonstrated once again that we have one of the best music programs<\/a> <\/strong>of any boarding school in New England. But that distinction doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and collaboration on the part of teachers, students, and other musicians. The choral concert featured performances by the Caterwaulers, our male a cappella group; the Widdigers, our female a cappella group; and the Teller Chorus, which is comprised of both boys and girls. The orchestra that performed with the Teller Chorus for Gloria<\/em> featured Fine Arts Teacher Deb Sherr on cello and two Pioneer Valley musicians who played the viola and the trumpet.<\/p>\n

\"debOn performing with her students, Deb Sherr says, “I absolutely love performing with the students. I often teach and conduct from the cello and find that they are very responsive to my musical cues when I am playing. It makes them really listen, which is an essential part of music making. Plus, it’s much more fun for me!”<\/p>\n

Our day students, who hail from all over the Pioneer Valley where the Five Colleges are located, have grown up in a culture that celebrates the arts. When they join our gifted boarding students from around the world, incredible collaborations occur. All who were present know what I am talking about, as do the almost 200 people who caught the performance via live webcast<\/a>.<\/strong>
 
It’s rewarding to see how excited the students—and the teachers—become when their hard work pays off so handsomely. Since it is already mid-May, the students will be gone and the campus will seem lonely all too soon. While this is a frenzied time of the year, I’m going to try and take in as much as I can, because performances like these remind us of why a school like Williston is so valuable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seniors are counting down the days until Commencement,AP exams are still on everyone’s minds, and I can’t walk across campus without seeing at least three flyers for various senior projects. It’s certainly a busy time here in Easthampton, but even in the middle of all of the frenzied activity, it is worthwhile to pause … Continue reading Gloria: Williston Singers and Musicians Outdo Themselves<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/headofschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}