Outside of sports, clubs, and other extracurriculars at PHS, three groups from the music department made their debut performance on Oct. 19 in the PHS auditorium.

The combined guitar classes, PHS singers and concert choir all performed to put together a concert that brought smiles to many community members who attended. 

“I feel like it was a really successful fall concert,” choir director Mrs. Rachel Schoessler said. “We were able to perform some very difficult songs, so moving forward for the rest  of the year, we will be able to do some really awesome stuff.”

Mrs. Schoessler teaches both the entry-level PHS Singers group and the audition-only Concert Choir group. She felt that both groups performed great, but now it is time to polish those skills.

“I wasn’t comfortable with every single song and felt dependent on those around me to get the right notes,” junior Brenna Henderson said. “It was a great learning curve for all of the newbies we have this year and helped everyone get acclimated to the concert setting. A goal for everyone should be to become more independent in getting their notes right.”

It’s to be expected that a concert won’t be perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, and learning from them is how groups can become better. The upcoming Veterans Day concert will bring more opportunities to improve in different areas.

“I want us to have cleaner pitches and rhythms,” Schoessler said. “…Lots of expression so that we can really demonstrate to the audience and the veterans that we appreciate everything that they have done.”

The Veterans Day performance will feature both Concert Choir and Concert Band. They will simultaneously perform Armed Forces on Parade arranged by Larry Clark and Greg Gilpin.

The band did not perform on Oct. 19, but they are eagerly awaiting upcoming opportunities to do so. 

“I’m thrilled with the band this year. They sight-read so well that I keep thinking of great music that I know they can handle,” band director Mr. John Fabela said. “They play with so much emotion and technical proficiency. We are currently busy preparing for the Veterans Day concert on November 9 and the Christmas concert on December 11.”

Besides band and choir, another section of the music department was allowed to show off their skills on the 19th. PHS offers two periods for guitar class and performs together a few times every semester. 

“The guitar concert went alright,” freshman Max Ginter said. “Towards the end, people kept forgetting which part they were playing.”

Even though the concert may not have been perfect, mistakes are how people improve and that is reflected in the music department’s ability to continuously improve.

“I am proud of how the guitar ensemble performed at their first concert,” Fabela said.  “Many of them have not been on stage since their elementary music programs and they did great.  Now they’re ready to move on to more challenging music and they are preparing music for our December concert.”