GRANBURY CHOIR SET FOR MOMENTOUS YEAR

September 2, 2011
 
Choir
 
The Granbury choir program is in store for a momentous school year, after an army of 221 students from Granbury High School and Crossland Ninth Grade Center performed for parents during a booster club kickoff held September 1, 2011, at GHS.

 

The combined ensemble performed the national anthem, the school song, and the traditional “Bless Us This Day” (pictured above).  A special moment included the group singing “The God Who Gave Us Life” from The Testament of Freedom by Randall Thompson with text taken from the writings of U.S. president Thomas Jefferson.  This song was performed to honor the upcoming tenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

 

GHS choir director Joy Hope discussed next summer’s trip to Italy.  The group will be travelling June 12-21, 2012, to perform in the Passion of Italy Festival.  Performances are planned in Rome for mass at St. Peter’s Basilica and a gala concert at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva or Santa Maria degli Angeli.  The tour also includes stops in Florence and Venice, where the group will perform at either St. Moise Church or Scalzi Church.  The trip will be organized by Kingsway International, which has over thirty years of international experience. 

 

This will mark the choir’s first trip outside the United States since 2004, when students went to Germany and Austria.  The group also travelled to London in 1999.  Recent trips have been to New York City and Hawaii.

 

Parents and students can learn more about the choir trip during an informational meeting on Tuesday, September 6 beginning at 6:30 P.M. in the GHS Bagby-McMahan Performing Arts Center.

 

Hope also announced that this year’s choir musical will be Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon.  The story centers on a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years.  The villagers view it as a blessing, believing that the enchantment will be broken if anyone ever leaves.  The arrival of two lost American tourists has serious implications for the village’s inhabitants.  With auditions set for early December, the performances are scheduled for February 3-5, 2012.

 

The choir students are first focusing on all-state choir auditions.  The four-round process begins on Saturday, September 24 at GHS.

 

The group will also be performing a beach-themed dinner theater on Saturday, October 8.

 

Choir directors are:  GHS – Hope and Greg Doss; Crossland and Granbury Middle School – Randall Walters and Cathy Terrel; and Acton Middle School – Christine Bridges and Bob Peacock.
 

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