Choirs united for their last concert of the year, themed “Elements,” in the Patil Theater on Friday, displaying their musical versatility and celebrating graduating seniors. Vocal groups included Festival Chorus, Dolce Voce, Rhapsody, Downbeat and Capriccio. The concert also marked the debut of the Serenata Concert Choir composed of Capriccio and Downbeat.

Vocal teacher Jennifer Sandusky developed the theme for the concert through conversations with her senior advisory. At the beginning of the school year, she asked her advisees to write down their favorite memories. She noticed that many of them wrote about nature, and their responses eventually inspired the theme of “Elements.”

“I was thinking a lot about what the seniors are going to remember when they leave us,” Sandusky said. “It really dawned on me that the things these seniors are going to remember are not all the tests or all the grades. They’re going to remember the joy. And most of their joyful experiences revolve around some kind of connection to nature.”

Sandusky, performing arts director Laura Lang-Ree and all choir members honored each graduating senior’s contributions to performing arts with bouquets and small crowns at the end of the show. Capriccio member senior Helen Gu reflected on how the celebration represented the bittersweet end of her journey in Harker’s performing arts program.

“I have been singing with some of these people for years and years, so it was a truly special moment in which I could express myself freely around these people who mean so much to me,” Helen said. “I held this cognitive awareness of how special this last concert would be for me, and so I’m really grateful that it was such a memorable experience. Going away from the performing arts program, I keep both my intellectual love and knowledge of music and the emotional connection that I have with the art of performing itself.”

Festival Chorus began the concert with former vocal teacher Susan Nace’s arrangement of  “Sumer is icumen in,” an old English 13th-century piece whose Latin title translates to “Summer has arrived.” With vivid descriptions of a cuckoo bird and blossoming nature, the song incorporated a lively tempo to describe new life. Festival Chorus member Xander Buca viewed the piece as a refreshing opportunity to practice a new style of singing.

“Because it’s so old, it’s nothing like anything we’ve ever performed before,” Xander said. “The song is supposed to be jubilant and sort of effervescent, so it was really interesting to hear how all of the parts combined together to make this special sound. To hear it on stage was also a really cool and different experience.”

The show contained many pieces that either described nature itself or expressed different aspects of the elements as a metaphor for human experience. Dolce Voce performed “Bel Piacere,” an aria about the joy of experiencing love, and Rhapsody delivered a rendition of “He Lives in You,” a song about strength and ancestry from the movie “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.” 

Honoring the theme, Capriccio performed Katerina Gimon’s “The Elements,” a choral piece with four movements for the four distinct elements: earth, air, fire and water. Each movement used vocal techniques to mimic the sound of its specific element, with intense rhythms for earth and overlapping voices to represent ripples in water. 

Capriccio member sophomore Aashi Jain reflected on the different emotions she felt when performing each element.

“‘Fire’ is a very different piece, because it has a lot of yelling and screaming,” Aashi said. “It’s supposed to be intimidating, so it made me feel powerful. ‘Water’ was also another piece that brought us together because we only had around a month to learn it. Overall, we really came together as a choir, and I felt a sense of pride and camaraderie when we performed at the concert.”