On December 12, 2022 at 7:00 P.M., the Mineral Point High School held its annual choir and band Christmas concert. At the start of the night, the 6th grade band played “Jingle Bells,” “My Dreydl,” “Up On A Housetop,” “Jolly Old St. Nick,” and “Popcorn Prelude.” The 6th grade choir then sang “Mary, Mary” and “Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child.” Together, the 6th-8th grade choir students sang “We Need a Little Christmas from Mame.” Next, the 7th and 8th grade choir sang “Holly Carol” and “Slow Rockin’ Christmas.”

To end the middle school part of the concert, the 7th and 8th grade band played “I Saw Carmen Kissin Santa Claus” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.” The middle school music students were a joy to watch.

The high school then started its concert with the jazz band. They played “Still, Still, Still” and “Angels We Have Heard on High.” In these two songs, Abel Logue, Tyler Nordstrom, and Cole Ferrell all had solos to play. Abel was asked what his favorite part of the concert was and he replied, “Jazz band because it was in a smaller group and it gave me a chance to improvise my solo.” Tyler was then asked what preparation went into the concert and he said, “We practiced every day during band class, and on Tuesday mornings we came in at 7:00 A.M. to practice for the jazz band.” Abel was asked what was something unique about the concert this year and he said, “Jazz band because we haven’t done it in years.” Another question Tyler was asked was what his favorite part of the concert was and he replied, “I would say my favorite part of the concert was watching the younger kids play in the band because they did one song where they started standing up and down while the different sections were playing.”

The choir sang the following three songs “Lullaby For Seafarers,” “Canon by Johann Sebastian Bach,” and “The Messiah.” Mrs. Calderon-McHugh was asked a few questions about the Christmas concert and this is what she had to say, “Right away after our fall concert is when we start the season for the winter one. It was a quick turn around of four weeks.” Her favorite song performed was the Messiah songs, “Glory to God” and “Since by Man Came Death.” Mrs. Calderon-McHugh said her favorite part of the night was, “Seeing the audience there. There were like three hundred people. It was a huge crowd, for all 6-12th ensemble. We had seven ensembles, so it drew a really big crowd, it was nice to see that many people in the gym just for a music concert.” When asked about something unique about the concert she said, “We had our first time with the big screen in there, so Mr. Austin worked really hard about putting up the program titles and each ensemble and having some holiday themed backgrounds.”

The high school band followed the choir with “Santa the Barbarian and the Pirates of the North Pole,” “Suite from The Nutcracker,” “Fantasy on a Theme by Praetorius,” and finally “Sleigh Ride.” Mr Nevers was asked what his favorite part of the concert was and he said, “My favorite part of the concert was seeing all of the students get a chance to perform and demonstrate all of the different genres and musical techniques that we have been working on for the past month.” Then he was asked what his favorite song was and he answered, “My favorite song would have to be Sleigh Ride played by the high school band. It just does a great job of getting everyone in the holiday spirit.” Finally, Mr. Nevers was asked what was something unique about the Christmas concert this year and he replied, “Something unique, we had a narrator (Mr. Cool) for one of the pieces with the high school band. We tend to not have narrators very often. Another unique aspect was a piece by the 6th grade band called Popcorn Prelude. They all had the chance to jump up and down (like popcorn) when sections of their music called for it.”