Upper school performance ensembles Acoustics, Bel Canto, Camerata, Cantilena and Guys’ Gig performed in the annual fall choral concert on Oct. 12 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Nichols Auditorium.

The concert began with Bel Canto performing American folk song “Down in the Valley,” followed with its rendition of Canadian folk song “Rattle on the Stovepipe.”

Titled “I Dream a World,” the concert centered around songs from the Western Hemisphere. The five groups performed an eclectic selection of music, which ranged in genre from classical and jazz to folk and gospel.

Jennifer Sandusky, director of Bel Canto and musical director of Downbeat, commented on how she selected Bel Canto’s repertoire.

“I was looking specifically at pieces to build Bel Canto’s technical vocabulary as a choir, so certain building skills like rhythmic challenges in one piece and to build their listening skills I picked a folk song that was pretty challenging to work on blend and vowels,” Sandusky said. “Repertoire choices for that particular concert are really educational as much as they are programmatic.”

For the third number, Camerata joined Bel Canto onstage to together sing André Thomas’ “I Dream A World.” Sandusky commented on the how the piece developed over time through the rehearsals and the actual performance, a gradual manifestation of the two groups’ efforts.

“The piece started off pretty shaky because they really didn’t have that much rehearsal time on it,” Sandusky said. “We worked on a lot of things like listening and intonation and just bringing out the emotional impact behind the words of that particular piece. I felt like it really kind of finally clicked for them last night and so it took a huge leap forward.”

After the combined choral piece, Camerata then performed “Shenandoah,” followed by the debut performance of Acoustics singing Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holliday’s “God Bless the Child.” Guys’ Gig sang the acapella version of Max Martin and Lukasz Gottwald’s “Since U Been Gone” and “Up on the Roof” by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

For its first number, Cantilena performed “Run, Children, Run,” a gospel song which the choir also performed during the upper school’s matriculation ceremony. Alto Priyanka Chilukuri (11), who first performed with Cantilena at the ceremony, described the group’s progression in an interview before the performance.

“We have been rehearsing since school started so the song has improved a lot,” Priyanka said. “It was a crowd pleaser during matriculation, and I really hope we get the same response [and] enthusiasm during the concert.”

The concert came to a close after Cantilena sang American folk song “Punching the Dough,” Iroquois soundscape “Watane,” Daniel Gawthrop’s choral piece “Sing Me to Heaven,” and Sue Johnson’s “Sister my Sister.”

The groups will perform next on Dec 11. in the annual Holiday show, during which they will take the stage on all three campuses. The performing arts department will hold the Spring choral concert next April.

A version of this piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on November 20, 2015.