If you were sitting inside Johnston High School’s auditorium last Thursday evening listening to special holiday sounds and closed your eyes, it’s a good chance you imagined that you were inside Symphony Hall.
That’s because the JHS Concert Chorus, Select Choir and Band, as well as the Panthers new and exciting A Capella Ensemble, put on a lively, well orchestrated over 90-minute performance that received rave reviews and standing ovations during the annual Christmas Concert.
“Tonight was enjoyable and certainly put everyone in the holiday mood,” said Dr. Bernard DiLullo, Johnston’s Superintendent of Schools. “Special thanks to Mr. [Ronald] Lamoureux and Mt. [Matthew] Gingras for teaching and leading our students to become great performers; you have both taken our music program to higher levels; you made me very, very proud.”
Likewise, Joseph Sousa, who was on hand photographing the annual music extravaganza for the Pantheon, was “tremendously impressed with the talented young student performers who are on that stage tonight.”
“It’s no wonder this place is almost full,” several late comers said while trying to find seats just as the JHS Select Choir was joined by the North Providence High School Select Choir for the singing of Homeward Bound by Marta Keen. “Wow! Those kids really have a full and mature sound.”
The combined choruses, with Alex Tirrell serving as accompanist on the piano, were arranged and produced by Matt Gingras and his wife Amy Gingras, who directs the NPHS Select Choir.
Matt Gingras told the audience how the new A CaPanther (A Capella Ensemble) holds rehearsals separately while emphasizing just prior to intermission when the 10-student group sang Carol of the Bells: “I’m proud to serve as their advisor.”
In all, the JHS Concert Chorus sang three numbers, the same as the Select Choir and the 70-member band – directed by Lamoureux – closed out the evening after a brief and professionally done changing of props during intermission, with four traditional tunes of Star of Wonder, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and the always popular A Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson.
“The band played flawlessly and professionally and I was particularly impressed with the narration for each number and solo performances, that was an added feature,” DiLullo said. “It was also pleasing to hear so many of our student musicians praised during the concert for achieving stateside recognition.”
To which Lamoureux, who has put together a “terrific team” with the addition of Gingras, who directs the JHS choirs and Oliver Reid, a highly-skilled music teacher, added: “We’re really proud of the consistent growth in our program. Our kids are playing and performing at very high levels.”
Lamoureux, who has developed an extraordinary model program that has earned a place atop of the state’s school music departments, said, “We have a fantastic staff that gives attention to individual kids. The outcome is that we have young adults attending the Boston Conservatory with full scholarships, Berkley and other prestigious institutions. Our program is designed and is functioning to take kids wherever they want to go”
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