The Dos Pueblos High School Vocal Music Department held a concert last Thursday in preparation for an upcoming competition at the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival on March 20 and 22, where the DPHS Jazz and A Cappella choirs will perform.
“It went really well, I think it was the practice run that we needed,” said Courtney Anderson, the DPHS Music Department Vocal Music Director.
According to Anderson, the performance was intended to help the student vocalists become more comfortable onstage in front of a live audience so that they would be ready to compete at the festival.
“You can always continue to refine and make things better and better, but eventually you just have to put it on stage,” Anderson said.
The concert allowed the students to notice their mistakes on stage and improve from them. From there, they have a week of practice to refine their performance before the competition.
“We can learn from all the mistakes that we make, and we can notice what we do when we’re actually in front of a live audience,” said Heath Delp (11), the A Cappella Choir Vice President. “It also helps us work with the technicalities of it, like mics and arranging ourselves on stage.”
Before the concert, Jazz and A Capella had been rehearsing for around three months with this specific repertoire, although they had started working on some of these pieces before that. According to Anderson, during rehearsal time, students work meticulously on every part of the song, right down to perfecting the details.
“We do it over and over again until we get it to that beautiful piece of artistry that it needs to be,” Anderson said.
Anderson worked in collaboration with leadership students from Jazz and A Cappella to decide the set list for this performance. The A Cappella Choir sang “Eleanor Rigby,” arranged by Paris Rutherford, “Words,” arranged by Anderson Edenroth, and “I Am Alive,” arranged by Greg Jaspers.
Delp said that “Words” was his favorite, while “I Am Alive” was “energetic,” and “Eleanor Rigby” was more “somber.”
The Jazz Choir sang “Well Loved,” arranged by Kerry Marsh, “The World Keeps You Waiting,” arranged by Darmon Meader, “Killing Me Softly,” arranged by Gene Puerling, and “Just One Of Those Things,” arranged by Kerry Marsh.
Jazz Choir President Jake Betancourt (12) described “Just One Of Those Things” as “upbeat, harmonically crazy, and fun to sing.”
Anderson also added that Thursday’s performance pushed the choir students “out of the comfort of the classroom” to prepare for the competition, which will also be an opportunity for growth.
“There’s a lot of value in competition, because it gives you something to work towards,” Anderson said.
