City chorus thrills audience with song

BANGOR -The cavernous Bangor Auditorium swelled with the voices of many of the Queen City’s most talented singers Tuesday night when the All City Chorus staged its annual concert.

More than 550 students from the city’s elementary, middle and high schools gave their best vocal performances for an audience of more than 1,200 parents, friends and relatives.

Schoolchildren from third through 12th grades got a standing ovation at the end of the 11/2-hour concert. They sang under the guidance of Bangor School Department music directors Jackie Frisk, Jim Paton and George Redman.

Events kicked off as a gentle breeze blew across Bass Park at twilight. “It’s a lovely evening for some music,” commented Master of Ceremonies Steve Norris, the city’s middle school band director.

Lovelier than the sweet spring air were the harmonies produced by fourth- and fifth-graders from the Mary Snow School and the Fairmount School on a whimsical tune titled “Scales and Arpeggios.”

Third-graders from around the city gently sang the soothing “Lullaby for the Trees” before launching into a rousing rendition of the “State of Maine Song.”

The high school chorus thrilled the audience with a number titled “Joyful Joyful” from the movie “Sister Act II.” Soloists Rhadonna Ackerson, Danielle Betts, Ashley Emerson and Meghan Irwin sounded so professional one audience member said, “They’re up there with Ella Fitzgerald.”

Schools taking part in the event were: Grade 3: Abraham Lincoln School, Down East School, Fourteenth Street School, Vine Street School; Grades 4 and 5: Fairmount School, Mary Snow School; Grades 6, 7, 8: William S. Cohen Middle School; James F. Doughty Middle School; and Bangor High School, the Bangor High School jazz choir and the Jazzmen, an eclectic talented combo of high school musicians who entertained the audience before the program started and later ably backed the jazz singers.

The concert ended on a high note, literally, with a song titled “Gabi Gabi,” an African praise song that combined high-school voices and younger higher voices from the middle and elementary schools. Kettle drums and other percussion instruments added a zestful flair.

Norris thanked the school department administration for its support of music in the city’s schools. He remarked that he attended last winter’s championship basketball game at the auditorium when Bangor won the Class A trophy.

“I am just as excited to be here tonight as I was then,” Norris said.