‘Baby It’s Cold Outside,’ but warm in the auditorium

The Johnston High School Music Department’s annual Winter Concert had just ended when School Superintendent Dr. Bernard DiLullo offered: “I am so proud to be working with these very talented teachers and students; I’m already looking forward to their next performance.”

On a night when around 325 people packed the school auditorium, JHS vocalists and musicians combined their talents and put on what many people called a “musical masterpiece.”

“We all enjoyed this very diverse and entering music program under the direction of Matthew Gingras and Ronald Lamoureux,” DiLullo went on. “Every piece by the full chorus and select chorus offered special selections of songs that included holiday music and cultural pieces; the students certainly put everyone in the holiday spirit.”

The concert had everything a music aficionado could want to hear. There were singing selections, band groups that included brass and woodwind teams that performed many holiday classics.

Moreover, the “JHS Music Rite of December” included countless cheers and applause from the audience including the chorus finale — “Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus.” And as DiLullo said with a wide smile on his face, “the solo pieces ended in even more appreciated applause.”

Likewise, people were impressed with the “special sounds” of the Lamoureux-directed full band that performed a pleasing medley of holiday songs familiar to everyone.

“And they were all professionally done,” DiLullo went on. “It was great to have everyone in the Auditorium to experience the result of hard work and dedication by our students and teachers.”

To which Lamoureux said: “Matt (Gingras) and I were really pleased with the performance. The kids have been really focused and it was extremely rewarding for them to have a fantastic audience to sing and play for.”

Perhaps the reason for the music department’s ongoing success is, as Lamoureux assessed: “We have spent a great deal of energy of time helping our kids understand what we are talking about by staying focused backstage, acting professionally throughout and executing stage change and technical jobs very well.”

All of which many concert-goers offered: “It’s obvious the students take pride in every aspect of putting on a concert.”

It was a night when the Concert Chorus, Select Choir Treble Choir took the stage as did a folk group, clarinet ensemble, trumpet ensemble and low brass ensemble. And they all shined.

Students Wilson El Hage, Joshua Geleas, Alberto Estrada and Jonathan Guilmette received praise for their renditions of “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “Last Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” that had an added sound from David Pagliarini, whose beautiful piano sounds added to those numbers.

Moreover, banjo player Dominic Whitten has, as Lamoureux noted, “become a crowd favorite in the last several months. His banjo skills and singing “Jingle Bells” impressed the crowd and included his friends Kyle Vargas, Jonathan Guilmette and Ben Monahan joining as instrumentalists, with Matt Gingras adding more sounds with an upright base.”

Yet another shining moment was the first half finale being a collaborative between members of the Taunton Civic Chorus conducted by Christopher Hoskins — as well as the JHS chorus — who did his student-teacher training placement with Gingras earlier this year.

As has been the tradition, the JHS band closed the evening with “Christmas Village” by Randall D. Standridge, which was introduced by JHS freshman Jonathan Prata. The song has become Lamoureux’s favorite, one he concluded “we will have in our repertoire for years to come.”