On April 8, the Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School community gathered in the school’s auditorium for the choirs and orchestra’s spring concert.
Directed by Margaret Murer, IBW’s choir and orchestra teacher, the choirs and orchestra played a variety of springtime-y, lively songs. All performances were played under this year’s theme of “With Hope in Our Hearts.” “The hope you have in your heart is what you will find tonight,” said Murer in the concert’s opening speech. “We always need it.”
The choirs and orchestra programs continued their successful momentum, as the orchestra had a top placement in the Oregon Schools Activities Association (OSAA)’s State Championship last year and won the Portland Interscholastic League Solo and Ensemble competition at Cleveland this past February.
In addition, Wells Advanced Vocal Ensemble (WAVE), IBW’s advanced choir, placed first in the same competition at Cleveland in February, while individual WAVE performers took home various first, second and third place wins in their respective categories.
The concert opened with IBW’s introductory choir, Concert Choir, performing “Song of the Sea” by Raymond R. Hannisian and closed their performance with “Turn Me ‘Round” by Earlene Rentz. Throughout the entire concert, Murer acted as conductor or piano player for the choirs and orchestra.
Following the Concert Choir was WAVE, who opened with “The Road Home” arranged by Stephen Paulus. WAVE’s final performance, “Stars I Shall Find” by Seth Houston, began with a duet by IBW seniors Gordon Nile and Nick Gettel-Gilmartin.
WAVE’s last two songs, “En Une Seule Fleur” by Morten Lauridsen and “Stars I Shall Find,” will be performed at this year’s Choir OSAA State Championship, as they won their district’s category with these performances.
In the Chamber Orchestra’s performance, they opened with “Viva Rossini,” arranged by Lloyd Rossini Conley and closed with “The Chronicles of Narnia,” arranged by Larry Moore. The Chamber Orchestra performed two other songs, “The Moldau” arranged by Bedřich Smetana and Albert Wang and “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” arranged by George Frideric Handel and Gerald R. Doan, both of which the Chamber Orchestra will be performing at this year’s Orchestra OSAA State Championship after winning their district’s division with these songs.
“One thing we really worked hard on to prepare [for the concert] has been staying together and having better communication amongst ourselves, and altogether, having good chamber music etiquette,” said Ruby Parr, an IBW junior, violínist and concertmaster in the Chamber Orchestra. “This means developing a really strong sense of awareness for the people around you is really good for the music.”
The 2025 spring concert closed with performances from Wellsingers, IBW’s intermediate choir. Wellsingers started with “Dixit Maria” by Hans Leo Hassler and ended with “Rock-a My Soul” arranged by Stacey Gibbs.
“Concerts are always so special because we get to share our music with everyone,” said Parr. “It’s so cool to see everything come together. Everyone worked so incredibly hard leading up to the concert.”
IBW choirs and orchestra are not stopping anytime soon. Both will be at OSAA’s State Championship on May 2 and 3. “State is coming up, [which] means a lot of practice,” said Parr. “We’ve really put our all into these pieces, so now it’s just a lot of adding musicality and fine-tuning stuff.”
Soon after, on May 11, the orchestra will perform at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall as an opener for the symphony. You can find the IBW choirs and orchestra in the IBW auditorium again for the Owlantics Showcase on May 20 and 21 as well.
