Late last week the highschool auditorium was booming! On Thursday the 14th, the North Colonie Music Department kicked off the winter concert season with their annual faculty recital. It was a huge turn out and beautiful display of talent by staff from all across the district.
The night began with some powerful performances before things took a turn. A quintet made up of members of the orchestra department worked behind the scenes with the middle school band teacher, Mr. Williams, to ‘rick roll’ the crowd with an energetic orchestral version of Never Gonna Give You Up (accompanied with drum set) by Rick Astley. Switching to this new song from the originally marked Mozart piece in the program was certainly unexpected!
Following the quintet, we had more soloists and smaller groups featuring different instrumentalists and vocalists alike. Our next big group was The BOGHT whackers, featuring ten Boght Hill teachers, ranging from different music teachers, to art, and ENL. Together, they synced up with one another one note at a time to play Roar by Katy Perry. It was truly impressive and all of their students in the crowd cheered like girls at a pop concert!
The rest of the night was ended by some incredible singers. With songs ranging from more popular tunes including Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen and Defying Gravity from the Broadway production Wicked. After these final small groups, the Faculty’s Big Band wowed the auditorium with a powerful, showy finish. It featured solos from one Mr. Ciarmello on alto saxophone and trumpet player Mr. Dole. The entire department joined each other on stage afterwards to perform their arranged version of Seven Nation Army. Switching to the instruments they would usually be teaching to students: boomwhackers, drums, xylophones, and more! It was truly so much fun for children and adults alike, all coming together in a standing ovation for the hard work all of the music teachers put in.
That night was a great display of our community being brought together by music. There wasn’t a single frowning face in the audience or on stage for the entire evening. It was heartwarming to see all of our music faculty getting along on stage and to have everyone in the auditorium swaying and singing together.