This Tuesday, May 20, OHS hosts their annual Pops Concert. It will be held in the main gym at 7:00 p.m.
For the different choir groups that OHS offers, the Huskies Choir is doing a “Greatest Showman” themed show. Varsity Choir is a 70’s Disco medley themed show. Concert Choir is doing a Grease themed show. Treble Choir is doing an Aretha Franklin medley themed show. Not only do the choirs have to focus on singing, they also have to balance it with dancing.
Choir director, Ms. Paula Asmus is excited and ready for the pops concert this Tuesday. She is excited for all the medleys and she thinks they all sound and look great. Asmus said, “I think it’s really fun to see it all come together.” When choosing out a medley, she tries to find medleys that are fun to dance and move to. Along with that, she tries to make sure that there is a different type of theme between each group. Where a group has a musical, an artist, a movie or an era.
For the orchestra groups OHS offers, Huskies and Varsity Orchestra are combined and are doing a Beauty and the Beast, as well as a Beach Boys medley. The Symphony Orchestra is doing a Journey medley, as well as a Hamilton medley.
Orchestra director, Ms. Sandra Justice is ready and excited for the Pops Concert. Justice said, “It’s a really good set from all three, band, orchestra and choir this year, where I think the audience is going to love the wide variety. People know them, they like them, they’re toe tappers. It’s not something obscure that you’re not going to recognize.” When picking out medleys for orchestra, it is really about looking at what they could do with the time they have to execute it well.
For the bands, the Huskies and Varsity Band are combined and are doing a Mulan and Pixar themed medley. While the Concert Band is doing Super Mario Bros and Jurassic Park themed medleys. Band director, Mr. Peter Guenther, is feeling fantastic about the concert and thinks it’s going to be a really fun program.
Guenther said, “There’s a lot of variety on this. I think we’ve taken some real steps to make the pops concert shorter in length, but we have more groups on it, so we took our Huskies and Varsity Band and Orchestra and combined them, so they’re larger groups. But we’re doing two pieces of music each, and I think it’ll go faster. We also have no interruptions during the concert, no break And I think the public will like that.”
Guenther mentioned how the Huskies Choir has 114 members participating in the opening show, The Greatest Showman. One of the highlights for him is the Concert Band doing Super Mario Bros, as well as the overall variety of the program. He would like to thank Asmus and Justice for all their work. Guenther continued, “It’s not just a one person show, It is a combined effort with a lot of people that put their heads together, and to make it work seamlessly and smoothly for the audience too, and most people don’t realize the kind of work that it takes.” When choosing out a medley, something Guenter looks at is instrumentation. He also tries to find some music that would work if there was a larger ensemble. Another thing is variety, he tries to find things that haven’t been put out there yet or newer pieces.
It’s a wide variety program and it’s going to be a fun concert. This year the concert will not be ticketed therefore it is free admission.
