Singers Tear It Up Before Tear Down

Poly’s Holiday Vocal Concert was a great success. The Choral Music Department came together last Wednesday, Dec. 10, to perform 15 charming holiday songs for friends and family in Poly’s auditorium.
With the help of directors Brian Dokko and Lori Grace leading the show, the singers delivered plenty of holiday cheer to the audience. Some Christmas classics were performed beautifully, including “Silver Bells,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
It wasn’t all standard songs though. Some interesting carols were also sung, like “Kuwa Na Krismasi Njema,” “Everybody Knows,” and “Shake Up Christmas.”
All the choirs also got on stage to sing “Samba Santa,” which is a Poly tradition. Two Sing-A-Longs were also included, where the audience was able to get in on the festive spirit and help sing “Deck the Halls” and “Jingle Bells.”
The cheer was palpable with the Cecilian singers’ performance of “Winter Wonderland,” and Grace getting the crowd lively and happy with their animated and extremely enjoyable performance of “It’s All About Love.”
It was clear that the students were enjoying themselves, with everyone swaying and smiling, the holiday spirit filled every member of the crowd.
“I really wanted to move along with them,” said senior Vivian Vu.
The angelic voices of Vocal Jazz 1 helped bring the evening to a close, right before a final collaboration between the combined choirs: “Peace, Peace.”
Sadly, this concert will be the last of its kind for a while. The Poly auditorium will be under construction until at least 2018, which means that the exquisite voices of Poly’s choral department will have to relocate.
Dokko announced that with the absence of the auditorium there will be some new changes to the formatting of concerts as well, with the departments that focus more on classical performing in the Cabrillo auditorium and the more modern departments showing their stuff in the Poly choir room.
Senior Kandise LeBlanc said, “I’m a little bit nostalgic for it…There have been so many firsts…my first solo, that’s where I met, honestly, my best friends in high school…but I know that it’s going to be a better auditorium for the other kids.”