By EVA HANEGRAAFF

NORTH READING — From Pre-K to seniors, North Reading’s student body has been celebrating the winter holidays through music across all schools

The performances have been prevalent the past two weeks with the J.T. Hood Elementary School hosting their show December 9 and the last show being the high school’s this past Thursday, December 19.

North Reading parents and friends have been immersed into holiday spirit with songs like “Sleigh Ride” and “All I Want for Christmas is You” as the students demonstrate their musical growth from the first months of school.

Music brings people together in a way possible by very few other mediums. The winter concerts put on by all of North Reading’s schools all share the goal of educating students both on music but also on emotion, and there is no better way to celebrate the holidays.

Hood School

The first show of the winter concert series, at the Hood School, contained three distinct shows. With the first one at 8:15 a.m., a second show at 9:30 a.m., and a final show at 6 p.m. The concert for the students began with the 4th grade band demonstrating playing their beginner instruments.  The Hood School’s band director, Daniel Muse, explains that the beginner instruments are what he first teaches the elementary students to play.  They differ for different instruments but traditionally just the mouthpiece of the instrument. Muse is also the director of the Batchelder School’s band as well as the 6th grade band director at the Middle School.

After playing a few sounds on their beginner instruments, the 4th graders assembled their entire instrument and played the song “Cuckoo.”  This song was comprised of three notes and demonstrated how different the sound becomes once the transition is made from beginner instruments to the full instrument.

For their next song, the 4th graders added on two more notes to play what Muse refers to as “the best song ever written” and that is “Hot Cross Buns.” The band’s last song was “Jingle Bells” and it included all the five notes they had learned  and was played at a faster pace than the previous two.

The first song by the 5th grade band was “All Grace and Thanksgiving,” however Muse explains that “it is not a Thanksgiving song.”  For this song, he plays the trombone alongside the 5th graders while using his free hand to direct throughout.

Just the flute players performed the next song, “The Good Life.” They were accompanied by Stephanie Lento, who is also the accompanist for the Little and Batchelder School choruses and director of the high school’s noncompetitive a cappella group, 12Eights.

The 5th grade band closed their set with “March Across the Seas.” Muse joined in this song again, with his trombone. It was fast paced and dynamic; a challenge the 5th graders excellently overcame.

The next group to perform was the combined 4th and 5th graders chorus, which was directed by Janna Comeau and accompanied by Lento. They sang “First Day of Winter” by John Riggio,“Candy Cane Lane” by Teresa Jennings, “Snow is Falling” by Ruth Elaine Schram and “Keep the Music Going” by Teresa Jennings.

The chorus closed their set by singing “Holiday Hoedown!” by Riggio. In this song with country elements, the 4th and 5th graders incorporated dance moves and hand motions to act out the song such as an imaginary lasso and wiping away sweat from their brows.

Little School

On Dec. 17, the Little School held three concerts as well, with two taking place in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each concert featured different grades. The first included the performances of the Pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade.  The Pre-K opened the concert with a snow theme, performing “Snow Pants,” “If all Little Snowflakes were…” and  “There’s a Snowflake on My Nose.”

In the kindergarten general music class, they first performed the song “If I Could Fly Like a Snowflake.” Guest conductor, Maestro Joseph Bonfiglio, led the kindergarteners in the song “Hat For My Snowman.” They then performed both  “Dreidel Song” and “Christmas Makes Me Sing.”  The first grade concluded the first concert singing three songs: “Jazzy Gingerbread Man,” “Spin A Little Dreidel,” and “Nice, Not Naughty.”

The second concert included performances from the 2nd and 3rd grades. Both grades performed four songs. The 2nd graders performed “Peace Like a River,” “Merry Christmas Bells,” “Shalom,” and “Winter Wiggles,” with the final song conducted by Bonfiglio. The 3rd graders performed “The Chipmunk Song,” “Dreidel Spin,” “The World Says Merry Christmas,” and “Better Bundle Up.”

The final concert included the 4th and 5th grade general music classes as well as the performing arts classes of band and chorus. The entire 4th grade performed “Snow Snow Snow” by Teresa Jennings and the 5th grade performed “First Day of Winter” by John Riggio.  Both grades combined to sing “Happy, Happy Hanukkah” by Karl Hitzemann and “The Christmas Sock Rock” by Mac Huff.

Next, three different instrumental duets performed. Desmond Holley and Tripp Callahan performed “Jingle Bells,” on saxophone. Another saxophone duet of Mia Rosabianca and Maya Biagiotti performed “Up on the Housetop.” Charlotte Callahan on the flute and Madison Moran on the clarinet performed “Love Somebody.”

The second-year band members followed. They performed “Winter Medley” led by guest conductor Maestro Austin Cerqueira. Next, they performed “Christmas in the Kitchen” by Michael Story. There are 64 students in total in the band program at the Little School, which is 60% of the 4th and 5th graders in the school.

The 4th and 5th grade chorus performed four songs. Their first song, entitled “Kusismami” by Jim Papoulis is sung entirely in Swahili and translates to “stand tall and close to earth.” Lento accompanied them on the piano with Peter Swarce and Timothy O’Donnell on percussion, while the students stomped and clapped as well as sang, adding to its dynamic challenge.

Their next song, also by Papoulis, was “When I Close My Eyes,” which has powerful message of believing in oneself. The chorus then sang “Here in My House” by Aline Shader and wrapped up the concert with “Bring on the Snow” by Jim Althouse.  At the Little School, there are 75 students in chorus, comprising 72% of the 4th and 5th grades. About this year’s chorus, Christopher Tatro, the director of the Little School’s music program said, “I can’t wait to work with them more.”

Batchelder School

The Batchelder School held its concert Dec. 17 in the high school’s performing arts center.  The 4th grade band was the first to perform, with Muse as their conductor. He started by having the students play their beginner instruments before moving into their first song, “Cuckoo,” followed by “Hot Cross Buns,” and “Good King Wenceslas.”  With all five notes they had built up over the course of the two months they had been learning their instruments, the 4th grade band concluded their portion of the concert with “Jingle Bells,” by J.S. Pierpont.

The 5th grade band was next, performing “All Grace and Thanksgiving” by Ryan Nowlin first, followed by “March Across the Seas” also by Nowlin, which included slow and drawn out notes. Their next song was “Boogie Blues” by Bruce Pearson.  Due to their “massive and mighty” flute section, Muse had the flutists perform “A Good Life” by Nowlin accompanied by Lento. Their final song was “Dance of the Reed Flutes” by Tchaikovsky and arranged by Story from “The Nutcracker,” which was a challenge that the 5th grade band was able to successfully face. To help both bands get through difficult songs they were at times joined by high school band members.

The long-term substitute teacher for Christine Morgan, Isaac Gliklich, directed the chorus, which was accompanied by Lento. The 4th and 5th graders sang “Hot Chocolate” from the movie, “The Polar Express.” They then sang the powerful song, “Build Me a World” by Ginger B. Littleton that describes the hope of children for peace and an end to suffering. The final song of the concert was “Amani Utupe,” which was a song in both English and Swahili.

NRMS

The North Reading Middle School held its concert on Dec. 18 in the PAC. The performance opened with the NR’Monics, the new middle school a cappella group, which sang “Up on the Rooftop” by Marc Brymer.

The Middle School jazz band, directed by Ben Owens, followed with “Beantown Blues Parade” by Rick Hirsch. The next group was the 6th grade band. Under the direction of Muse, they performed five songs. Their first three were part of Brian Balmages’ “Midnight Suite” entitled “Midnight Mission,” “Midnight Sky,” and “Midnight Madness.” All took on three very different styles, challenging the 6th graders to play different kinds of music.

Longfield arranged their next song, “Gloucestershire Wassail.” Due to the difficulty found in pronouncing this song’s name, Muse told the audience that the 6th graders affectionately know it as “Glorious Waffles.”  Their final song was “All is NOT Calm” by Katie O’Hara Labrie. This song parallels a smooth woodwinds section, however, as Muse puts it, “brass and percussion have a different idea of what should be going on here!”

The 7th grade band performed next, opening with “March of the Winter Elves” by Randall Standridge followed by the song commonly known as “Danny Boy;” however, it is called “Irish Tune from County Derry” and was arranged by Paul Cook. They ended their set with “Aggressivo” by Randall Standridge, a loud, fast, dynamic song.

The combined chorus performed “Chanukah Blessings” arranged by Michael Rothbart, a song sung entirely in Hebrew. The 6th grade chorus followed with “(I am ready to) Try” arranged by Masa Fukuda, a song with a message about following your heart. “Winter Bells,” arranged by Alan Billingsley, followed.  Sixth-grade pianist Silvia Liu performed a solo of “Morning Bell” by Johann Burgmuller.  Their last song was “This is My Crazy Student Life” by Pinkzebra, a song that discusses the struggles of a family during the school year.

The 7th grade chorus took on the challenge of “The Bells” by Lon Berry, which was an Edgar Allen Poe poem set to music.  They then sang “Sweet Silent Night” by Andy Beck and ended their set with “Storm” by James M. DesJardi, which incorporated percussion elements as well as clapping and stomping.

The 8th grade chorus opened their set with “And Miles to Go Before I Sleep” by Michael Ryan, a Robert Frost poem set to music. Next, “Toboggan for Two” by Robert Applebaum, highlighted the thrill of snow sledding. Their final song was “All I Want For Christmas Is You” originally by Mariah Carey and arranged by Mac Huff.  Shayla Dooley started off this song with an incredibly dynamic solo.

The 8th grade band closed out the performances with “Skeleton Crawl” by Jason K. Nitsch, which incorporated a spoken work element. Their next song was “Somewhere in My Memory” from the movie “Home Alone.” Owens asked the audience, “What would the band portion of the concert be without ‘Sleigh Ride’?” The band played it perfectly, using a giant slapstick and unique instruments throughout.

NRHS

The North Reading High School’s winter concert on Dec. 19 opened with a brand new a cappella group, 12Eights, directed by Lento. They sang two songs, “Take a Hint” from the TV show, “Victorious” with soloists Maegan Mabbett and Mikayla Hurley, and “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John with soloist Samuele Voisinet.

The next to perform were the piano classes. There were two groups, with very few pianists who had played before the start of this year. The first group played “Jingle Bell Rock” and the second played “Holly Jolly Christmas.”

The jazz band opened their set with “Honeysuckle Rose” featuring soloist Joe Dhimitri. Their next two songs incorporated the jazz band’s official vocalist, Ceci Thomson. This is the first time they’ve had a full time vocalist who attends all the jazz band rehearsals, enabling Thomson to develop her skills as a jazz singer as well as develop the band to play songs with a vocal element. They performed “On the Sunny Side of the Street” by Jimmy McHugh followed by “Almost Like Being in Love” by Lerner and Lowe and arranged by Wiehaus. This song also included solos from Matt Capalbo and Calvin Fisher.

The jazz band played two additional songs, “Shiny Stockings” by Foster, arranged by Nestico with soloists Calvin Fisher and Joe Dhimitri, and “The Twelve Days of Christmas” arranged by Andrew Morgan Smith. Owens describes this version of the song as “jazzy” and he urged the audience not to sing along due to the variations from the traditional version. It included solos from Anderson Ferrara, Raffi Toby, Nathan Burt, and Ivan Deiko.

The chorus opened their five-song set with “Trilogy of Snow” by Ruth Schram and Lynne Wolfe-Richards followed by “Swifter than Flame” by Elaine Hagenberg.  Their next song, “I Know a Young Maiden” by Orlando di Lasso, was the audition song for junior districts. Out of the 13 NRHS students who auditioned, 10 made it. Out of those 10, five were invited to audition for states.

“Dies Irae” by Ryan Main was a Latin poem and incorporated intense dynamics. Their final song was “Camptown Races” by Jack Halloran. The complexity of this song is found in the many different harmonies throughout.

The High School concert band opened with John Prescott’s “By Virtue of the Skies.” Their next song was a fourth song in the humorous series that has become a tradition for the concert band. As part of the “Santa the Barbarian” series by Randall Standridge, this song is entitled “Son of Santa the Barbarian.” With Superintendent Patrick Daly as the narrator and wearing a horned hat, it told the tale of Santa the Barbarian’s peaceful son and the battle between chaos and order that ensues. In the end, the son is victorious and is able to spread peaceful and happy Christmas cheer to all. This story was told by both the spoken words of Daly, and the musical contrast between the light and airy tune of the son with the loud and intense sound of Santa.

The band’s next song was “In These Last Days of Autumn” by Standridge.  Owens described this song as “a ballad with a rock feel at the end.”  The rock feel is made evident in Nate Burt’s guitar solo at the climax of the song.

The last song was “Sleigh Ride,” however their delivery was unique. Nick Santiago had the part of the slapstick. As the song started, he began running. He moved to the front of the stage and then off the stage, up the aisles and around until he made his way back in front of the stage for his cue.  As he used the instrument, he jumped in the air, gaining laughs from the audience. This continued and as he began his sprint in between every cue, near the end he ran all the way backstage. In the meantime, Nate Burt came out holding a 12-foot tall slapstick and when Nick returned for his final cue with his handheld slapstick, the gleeful look on his face turned to sadness as Burt made the final cracking sound.

The last act of the concert was NOTEorious, North Reading’s competitive and internationally ranked a cappella group. They opened with “Don’t Lose Sight” featuring with soloists Alivia Rowe and Jackson Wisco. Next, they sang “Higher” by Michael Buble with soloist Nolan Barrette. “If I Ever Fall” by Shai, with soloists Vinny Constantino and Mikey Manupelli, followed. Their final song was “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter with soloist Vasiliki Kouiroukidis.

NRHS senior Eva Hanegraaff is a student intern at the Transcript for the 2024-25 school year. She wants to use her internship to learn about the field of journalism and bring a high school voice to the Transcript. Contact her at evahanegraaff@gmail.com with any article ideas or tips.