Holiday choral concert features area students
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RONAN — Voices of 130 students from four high schools joined together in a performance for a packed house Dec. 14 at the annual Mission Valley Christmas Choral Festival Concert. Ronan High School hosted the event, and choirs from Charlo, St. Ignatius and Thompson Falls came to sing holiday favorites along with some lesser-known contemporary tunes.
After each choir performed separately, all four groups formed a mass choir for three songs: “Huron Carol,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “For Unto Us a Child Is Born.” In separate male and female choirs, the girls sang “One Bright Star,” while the boys did “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen.”
Although students learned the mass choir songs in the weeks leading up to last week’s festival, they only practiced as a group beginning at 10 a.m. on the day of the show, adding an extra challenge for the singers, said Kendall Anderson, who directs Mission High School’s 36-member choir.
“I was really pleased with the way my choir performed,” she added.
The four high school choir directors also had to share responsibility for conducting the mass choir, since a guest director wasn’t available this year.
After five weeks of rehearsing, Ronan director Cathy Gillhouse said she thought the event was a great success. Three years ago, the festival moved from the St. Ignatius Mission to the Ronan Events Center to accommodate a growing audience, and the event has continued to increase in popularity.
Gillhouse and Anderson were joined by directors Deb Rosbarsky from Charlo High School and Tyler Arlint from Thompson Falls High School. Pianist Wendy Sanders played for the groups, except for Mission High School’s choir, which was accompanied by eighth-grader Lindsay Johnson, who started playing for the high school choir in fourth grade, Anderson said.
