On Oct. 17, the Metea Valley music department had its first concert of the year starting off on a high note. The auditorium traveled around the world that night as the Metea choirs sang the guidance to different countries. The choirs sang songs from Italy, Africa, Latin America, and other European countries.

“When the school year ends, I start thinking about next year. Most of July, I look and study sheet music and think about songs for next year, picking songs that are challenging but interesting,” said choir director Mr. Nathan Bramstedt. “Like an English teacher picking different novels, picking different themes and exposing them to different historical periods, I do the same to expose a wide verity of choral music.”

The choir explores many different cultures in order to sing pieces of music in the concert. The different groups of the choirs banded together to perform all the cultural songs in the choir. Cecilian, band, varsity, etc. all had their own plans and songs and worked together for group songs to reveal the talents of the entire music department. The choir showed the teamwork and hard work needed to be prepared for their concert.

“We get our music and we start individually and go over the music, especially if it’s in a different language. We break up the parts we are singing in different groups and work individually to learn and feel more confident, then we all work together so we all feel confident on what we’re singing. We work on what we’re singing, how we are singing it and making it beautiful,” said sophomore Varsity singer Bailey Stark about the choirs’ teamwork and how they learn their music together and in different languages.

“Choir is fun! You get to experience different things. A regular concert may be just choir kids, but then you have other concerts like Collage which is all the music departments’ choirs, band and orchestra, and it’s intense. Choir has a big impact on our lives because in the end we all have a connection with each other,” said sophomore Varsity singer Meghan Santer.

The music departments work hard to bring their best to the concerts. They chose and learned new music from around the world to bring to us at Metea, bringing culture and unique music.

By Alejandro Garcia