With the holiday season around the corner, there are a lot of festivities in the area. On Dec. 6, the high school chorus members took the stage with their teacher Ms. Jennifer Newman. The next week, concert band and jazz band members shared winter melodies with their teacher, Ms. Emily Rickard on Dec. 14.

The chorus consists of 19 students, five of them being seniors. They started their show with “Silver Bells” by Audrey Snyder. This song featured a senior soloist, Haylee Johns. The chorus then moved onto “Angels We Have Heard,” then a classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” by Emerson. Freshman Phoebe Smith was the featured soloist for this song. All together, the students sang “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” They wrapped up their show with “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” by Kirby Shaw. Seniors Kyler Brown, Haylie Couch and Sophomore Jazmin Winterhalter all were soloists during this performance. 

“I enjoy knowing there will be more concerts for Freedom in the future. Last year with only six people in the chorus, it wasn’t clear if we would have one, but now I’m confident they will,” Brown said.

Jazz band took the stage first. They began with the song “Swingin’ into Christmas,” by Carl Strommen. They continued their melodies with “Getting Funky on the Housetop,” by Erik Sherburne. They concluded with “Oh, Chanukah,” by Rich Hirsch. Some sololists featured through the night were senior Connor Tavern, juniors Dakota Gingerella, Samuel Brenner and freshman Calla Reynolds. The concert band played after the jazz band. Their show also consisted of three songs. Beginning with “Celebrations for Christmas,” by  Randall D. Standridge and “Ancient Carol Variants,” by Chris M. Bernotas. They finished up with a well known song, “Sleigh Ride,” by Leroy Anderson and James Ployhar.  

The band and chorus students combined concerts this year with the middle school students. The middle school students opened the concerts for the high schoolers. At the end of the night, all the students came together to play one song. Chorus students sang, “Somewhere in My Memory,” by Mark Hayes. However, the band students did not play anything with the middle schoolers because of the advancements in high school band compared to middle school. 

“I always enjoy hearing the middle schoolers, getting to sing the last song with them was awesome because I remember being a middle schooler singing with the high schoolers,” Brown said. 

Every year, students come together to put on concerts for their parents and other community members. They sing and play along to winter music to get everyone in the holiday spirit. They will take the stage again in the spring to wrap up the school year.