Megan Brummet

Writer

 

On Friday November 8th, the concert choir, Limited Edition, and the Riverbend Children’s Chorus had their first concert of the year, entitled “By Popular Demand”. The concert featured songs that ranged from Christian music, a few musical numbers and a tribute to Queen.

 

Susan Standard has been teaching for more than 20 years. Some of those years have been choir, but she has always taught vocal music. “It’s always an adventure seeing who will be in the classes.” She said about her favorite part of each semester. “Once I see who’s singing, I am able to select the music that works best.”

 

She is always looking for new people. She mentioned to me that the choir is open to everyone, and that you don’t need to be a music major to participate. “Quite a few of our singers don’t even read music. Anyone interested in singing with the concert choir just needs to send me an email or give me a call.” Registration for spring semester is going on now. She has some amazing concerts planned. It’s well worth it!

 

The director of the Riverbend Children’s Chorus is Barbara McHugh. She has taught music in public schools for 30 years, and she has worked with Riverbend for 4 years. She says this choir isn’t with a school necessarily but with the Lewis and Clark attendance area, including Alton, Godfrey and Jerseyville.

 

The age range for the children in the choir is anywhere from 2nd to 8th grade. During the concert, she made it known to the audience that this is the first performance for many of the seven children; although, some have been in the group before.

 

“It’s never boring!” said Elise Gremli, when asked what her favorite part of choir was. She also mentioned that she likes the different mixture of music. Her father mentioned that “A Tribute to Queen” was his favorite part during the concert. They were “rocking out” when they got to Bohemian Rhapsody.