JHS Festival Concert set to rock the community

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By PETE FONTAINE

The Aca-Panthers are indeed ready. So are the many talented musicians – whose resumes include the prestigious All-State tag – for what promises to be another extraordinary evening per Johnston High School’s national award-winning Music Department.

“The house will open at 6:30 p.m.,” Ronald Lamoureux, who chairs the JHS Music Department, said. “The concert will begin at 7 o’clock; tickets are $5 and only available at the door.”

Lamoureux then emphasized a new marketing twist of sorts, announcing “we will also offer free admission to all Johnston students.”

He then explained that tonight’s concert – which is entitled the 2nd Annual Festival Concert and will be held inside the JHS Auditorium – “is still relatively new to us. We are presenting our biggest pieces of curriculum to the public. This is our ‘testing’ material for not just kids, but also for us directors.”

That’s because tunes, as Lamoureux called tonight’s selections, “will present these same songs at the Rhode Island Music Education Association (RIMEA) Band Festival on April 12 when JHS will compete with 20 other public and private school ensembles during the two-day event.”

As for tonight’s Festival Concert, the first part will showcase the JHS Concert Chorus and Select Choir that will be directed by Matt Gingras.

Each of those talented troupes will perform three pieces and the Concert Chorus will open the night with Joshua! The bottle of Jericho! by Kirby Shaw. Then Mark Miller’s lyrical ballard I Believe will follow and the aggressive up-temp Dies Irae by Ryan Main will round out the first set.

The Aca-Panthers, an A Cappella group of students fresh from a highly-acclaimed set at the Edgewood Congregational Church in Cranston, will also perform.

“This will be their second performance this month,” Gingras said. “Lots of people are talking about the Aca-Panthers.”

Gingras’ vocal groups will close the first half of the Festival Concert when a well-balanced and talented group of musicians who make up the Select Choir take the stage for three numbers.

“The three pieces will showcase their mature sounds in a variety of styles,” the JHS music teacher explained. “The set will open with an upbeat gospel song called Cornerstone by Kirchner. That will be followed by Ballade to the Moon by Daniel Elder.

The last piece Gingras predicted will have the audience on the edge of their seats with the lively Lamentations of Jeremiah by Z.

Tonight’s event will be completed with what promises to be an exciting performance by the Lamoureux-led JHS band. The selections are: A Copland Tribute by Clare Grundman that features a theme from “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

Next will be the A Percy Grainger Suite arranged by Frank Erickson which is a moving melody from “Irish Tune” from County Derry a.k.a. Danny Boy.

“Our close is the final two movements of Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite”, The “Berceuse” and “Finale” are masterfully arranged for the band setting by Robert Longfield.

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