By Hannah Frazier

“Cantamus” means “we sing” in Latin. It is very straightforward becauseTPA’s choir does just that! Cantamus has had many performances back to back after just a handful of practices. This year’s choir has 74 members! This is notably larger than the choirs of 58 and 52 that Tempe Prep has had in the previous two years. This adds an additional challenge in rehearsing, considering that this year, Cantamus only practices for one hour a week rather than two.

However, with great leaders, the choir did the seemingly impossible and prepared a wonderful repertoire to sing at their concerts. Mrs. Stewart, who now leads Cantamus for the third year, makes all of this possible with her incredible leadership and conducting skills.

She says, “I love working with these kids. They have great character, they work hard, and they care about doing their best… It’s an adjustment to only rehearse once a week. Attendance is critical, and I’m still working on learning everyone’s name! The improvement that I see is in retaining what we’ve learned. Memorizing seems to be better this year. I also think we are getting a better sound – not always loud and strong, but adding nuance to the dynamics and phrasing we haven’t had before.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She enjoys returning to conduct Tempe Prep students and helping them improve. Herr Gray is also a huge support to the choir. Cantamus is so lucky to have such a great pianist at every rehearsal!

To start off this year of Cantamus, the choir performed the National Anthem at TPA’s Homecoming game on Oct. 18. While this was not a major performance, it gave them a feel for working as a group and performing together.

On Oc. 25 Cantamus performed at The ACE Fall Choral Festival. ACE stands for Arizona Choral Educators and is a subgroup of the Arizona Music Educators Association. Chamber choir performed as well beforehand and did a great job.

Cantamus performed Somagwaza, Ich will den Herrn Loben, and Stand Upon the Rock. For this performance, Cantamus had to learn how to sing in African and German as well as master a new English song. Learning to sing in two foreign languages is a great achievement, let alone having those songs memorized. Cantamus did incredible and got some great input on their vocal performance from Dr. Joe Modica from the University of Redlands.

Afterwards, they were put to the test with some sight reading, which came as a surprise to most. There were two rounds. In the first, no one could sing until it was time to perform it. In the second, Cantamus got a feel for the music and performed it with a great difference. Rita Scholz, who judged sight reading

portion of the clinic, says, “Congratulations on your growth and improvement!” She was tremendously impressed by the developments that the choir made after just a few minutes of extra preparation. Cantamus took away an “Excellent with Distinction” plaque. This shows great promise for this year’s choir.

The next performance was at the school picnic on Nov. 2. Cantamus performed Full Moon Outside My Window,“Ich will den Herrn Loben, and Somagwaza. Their performance was beautiful and made the picnic that much more memorable for everyone that attended. They did a great job all together, but one member in particular did something truly spectacular. Mrs. Stewart couldn’t make it to the picnic so Cantamus was conducted by the president of Cantamus, Chloe Darling.

Chloe says “All the singers were super cooperative which made my job so much easier. Everyone did such a great job! I was so proud of all of them because it’s pretty difficult to sing without an experienced conductor.” Chloe did so wonderfully, especially because it was her first time ever conducting!

The biggest performance of the semester for Cantamus was on Nov. 23. Tempe Prep’s “Splash of Classics” dessert concert was quite the classy event. Cantamus members waited on tables and brought around trays of baked sweets and other treats. This year for the first time savory appetizers were added into the mix.

The concert included a performance by middle school’s Bel Canto, who though small in numbers gave an incredible performance that the audience loved. Chamber Choir sang too and they did really well. All of their hard work really showed in their performance. A dramatic scene was performed by Clara Moffitt and Kailana Williams. The two girls gave an unbelievably passionate rendition of a reprise from last year’s school musical, The Secret Garden.

Cantamus performed all of the songs that they performed at the festival, but added two new songs: Carol of the Bells and Kyrie. Each song was paired with a piece of artwork to further convey emotion. This showed how much thought went into everything and the audience appreciated that. The performance went well and Cantamus received a standing ovation from the audience and it was well deserved after all of their practice.

Mrs. Stewart was very proud of the choir after their performance and says, “I am thrilled with how it went tonight for our “Splash of Classics” concert!… I love that the festival prepared us to really throw it down tonight. I received many comments that the audience loved the visual arts displayed on the screens. And I love that everyone had a good time.”

Chloe Darling has seen tremendous growth in everyone over the years as well as in the past few weeks. She says, “I have seen growth in everyone. I’ve been doing Cantamus since 10th grade and it’s really cool to see all of the seniors, who have also done it since then, grow into amazing and mature singers! I also love hearing the immense improvement our choir has when we just begin to learn a song, to when we perfect it before the concerts!”

Cantamus has put in the effort and were finally able to show off all they were capable of at the concert!