‘Snowflakes Fall’ intermediate concert

The fifth- and sixth-grade choirs from Waseca Intermediate School, directed by Angela Andreen, held their winter concert on Monday, December 5 in the high school’s Performing Arts Center. The concert was titled "Snowflakes Fall” and centered around the picture book by the same title, written by Patricia MacLachlan and Steven Kellogg. As the lights went down the audience was shown a recorded reading of the book.

Throughout the program, student speakers presented Snowflakes Fall again, line-by-line. The speakers were fifth-graders Lilly Muff, Charles Galle, Kiyanna Gwilt, Norah Swindle, and Miles Popp and sixth-graders Maurice Lopez, Sophiel Weber, Madalyn Halla, Avery Roessler, and Levi Behm. Andreen explained that, with five speakers to be selected from each choir, students had the option to visit her and “audition” by reading selections. “They all read so wonderfully that it was hard to narrow it down,” she said. “But I also had back-up readers ready because of this. I hope that as they continue in school they keep trying and auditioning for things because they will all be awesome!” The combined choirs also sang a repeated chorus of “A Million Little Snowflakes” by Teresa Jennings, which was written to accompany the book Snowflakes Fall and served to tie the choral performance more closely to the story.

In addition to “A Million Little Snowflakes,” the fifth-grade choir sang three songs and the sixth-graders sang four before the concert closed with some numbers performed by both groups together. The fifth-graders presented “Winter in America” by John Riggio, “Christmas, Christmas” by Mike Wilson, and “Winter Walk,”also by John Riggio. Story readings were given between songs to progress the story; the moods of both were intertwined. The sixth-graders offered “Winter Waltz” by Karl Hitzemann, “Sugarplum Dancing” and “Warm Winter” by Teresa Jennings, and “Candy Cane Twis” by Andy Beck and Brian Fisher. Snowflakes Fall was completed before the combined choirs took the stage to close the concert. After a final rendition of “A Million Little Snowflakes,” the combined choirs presented “Celebrate with Joy” by Teresa Jennings.

Andreen is in her third year in her position as choir director and general music teacher at WIS, and came to Waseca with twelve years of teaching experience. She says she plans to stay with Waseca and help grow the music program in the district. The fifth-grade choir performed just last year under her direction, with the goal of allowing the students to keep singing. The fourth-graders at WIS have a spring program, but prior to the formation of the new choir the fifth-graders had only general music, which focuses largely on instrumental music. Andreen said the program has thus far been very successful in terms of participation and teaching students how to be a part of a choral community.

In response to praise for the performance, Andreen enthusiastically agreed that the students had done an excellent job that night. In her address to the audience, however, Andreen emphasized how much fun the kids have participating in choir and singing together. The WIS choir students are still young, and while there is no way of knowing whether any will eventually find a career in music, it is safe to say that if participating in the choir enriches their lives with joy, it is a worthwhile endeavor.