ECOL Honors Band and Choir to perform tonight
WARSAW – Musicians from eight area schools met at River View High School today to prepare for a concert to be performed tonight, Monday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at the high school.
Top musicians from Cambridge, Coshocton, Dover, New Philadelphia, Marietta, Zanesville, Meadowbrook, and River View schools will come together on the River View stage to perform the ECOL Honor Band and Choir concert. Practice began at 9 a.m. this morning in the high school auditorium.
“It’s a process,” said Charles Snyder, director. “Some of these kids have never done anything like this, performing with kids from other schools. So it takes a few hours for everybody to get used to each other. They’re good kids, very polite. They’re glad to be out of school for the day.”
The concert will open with the choir singing “The Star Spangled Banner”. Other choir selections will include “Come Travel with Me”, which is inspired by a poem written by Walt Whitman entitled, “Song of the Open Road”, “Hallelujah, Amen” by Handel, Luigi Cherubini’s “Veni Jesu”, “Sing Me to Heaven”, and “Bound for the Promised Land”.
The band will begin their selections with the “Declaration Overture” and continue with “As the Moon Whispers”, “The Dark Waters”, and “The Liberty Bell”. The choir and band will come together in a finale to perform “The Pledge of Allegiance”.
“When the [ECOL] organization formed, the league’s ultimate goal was to be more than just athletics,” said Todd Bates, Meadowbrook choir director. “It was created more so the kids would get to know each other on a different level.”
There are 70 students performing in the choir and about 60 in the band. This is the second year River View has hosted the ECOL concert.
“When the league started, they wanted to strengthen the bond between the schools beyond just athletics,” said Barry Hardesty, Coshocton choir director. “This expands what the league is doing as far as relationships between the schools.”
Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students and will be available at the door. The performance will last about an hour.
“This is something great too because students from different schools are working together instead of against each other to produce something of value,” said Hardesty. “They can have empathy for one another as other schools go to play-offs, they’re cheering for each other because you’ve made friends with the person across the field from you.”
Category: Arts & Entertainment
