On Oct. 22, the Ida B. Wells High School choirs performed their fall concert in the school auditorium. Family members, younger siblings, alumni, underclassmen and students all were present for the IBW choirs’ first concert of the year.
Douglas Orofino was chosen to step into the role of a new choir director for these students and choirs after Margaret Murer, the previous choir director at IBW, retired last spring.
“The first couple weeks were a lot of adjustment [to a new teacher], and it was more difficult to kind of get into the flow of things, especially for people who’ve been here longer… but I think now, it’s just, it’s great,” says Isabel Goah, a junior at IBW and a member of the Wells Advanced Vocal Ensemble as well as Wellsingers.
Risers and off the stage platforms, as well as new carpeting in the auditorium, marked a fresh feeling to the concert and left audience members waiting in anticipation.
Wearing T-shirts and jeans, the choirs presented a more informal concert. Even so, having a concert so early in the year proves to the IBW community that the choir programs are still thriving even after the change of directors.
Jaydon Wilde, a senior at IBW and a member of WAVE and Wellsingers, says that Orofino is a nice addition to the choir program, and engages the students in class. “It’s something he does really well, and it makes the choir feel a lot more connected.”
WAVE was the first group on stage, starting with a prelude, “I Will Arise and Go” by Shawn Kirchner, with piano accompaniment by Dr. Evan C. Paul. Starting with a hopeful piece, they walked onto the stage as well as the extended risers while singing, and included a short solo by senior Josephine Rustvold.
After their opening, Orofino came on stage and thanked the audience for attending the concert and emphasized his gratitude for other individuals who helped make the concert happen.
While he spoke, Wellsingers started to fill in on the side of the auditorium next to audience members, and the Concert Choir made their way onto the stage risers. With all the singers in place, Orofino started to conduct the next song.
“Gamaya (Lead Me)” by Paul John Rudoi also included percussion by Jessie Ginsberg and Sawyer Villarreal. Seeing all the singers come together was heartening and with the choir surrounding the audience, the sound resonated. The piece was hopeful, but sounded a bit remorseful.
Once the whole choir department finished the piece, WAVE and Wellsingers returned to their seats, leaving the Concert Choir front and center. They started with a self conducted “Sesere Eeye” a traditional Torres Strait Islands piece with percussion by Ginsberg. It was fun with a strong beat that the students danced along to. Their second song, “Afternoon on a Hill” by David Dickau, was conducted by Orofino with piano accompaniment by Paul. The Concert Choir closed their performance with “Mama Wama,” a traditional Burmese song by Nyi Nyi Myin.
The whole setlist for the concert choir helped highlight the ensemble while still being interesting, “I really liked their music set list this year,” says Goah. I feel like, in the past, Concert Choir gets really easy… it doesn’t always feel like choir songs. And I think with Mr. Orofino, this year, he’s just making sure that everybody has equal opportunity, and it’s not tiered choirs.”
When Orofino started picking the set list for all the choirs, he took into account different tempos, keys and most importantly picking music that worked for the students. Learning to work with different voices and ensembles requires finding songs that highlight their voices while also balancing the parts of the ensemble.
In picking the music, Orofino decided on a theme, “Arise and Sing,” and focused on nontraditional music. “This concert specifically had a focus on non-Western music,” says Orofino. “We had several different pieces that were from non-Western traditions, and that was a really exciting part of the concert.”
While the preparation for this concert was a bit quicker than the students were used to, there was still time to focus on specifics. After the preliminary learning of the pieces were over, they started to truly get to know the music, “We start working on shaping and phrasing and style, and that’s kind of my favorite part of the process. So we do that for a while as we’re leading up to the concert, and that also helps with memorization,” says Orofino.
They also worked on performance practices, which include working with instrumental collaborators and adding in traditional music appropriate to the song. This also included learning to listen to each other and figuring out the group sound.
WAVE’s performance was entirely self-conducted. Because a competition requirement is to not be assisted by their conductor, the singers worked together and watched each other for cues during their pieces. Although, Orofino did step in to offer support for the tenor section because a student was out because of illness.
Working with a smaller group can sometimes be difficult to balance sound, but in “Wanting Memories” by Ysaye M. Barnwell, there was almost a playful duet between the tenors and basses and the altos and sopranos. A strong beat was led by the lower voices and the higher voices held the core melody.
They continued with “Esto Les Digo” by Kinley Large and featured a solo by Goah at the end. It was a beautiful piece and the audience applauded boisterously after. For their last piece, they performed a fan favorite, “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder and arranged by Paul Langford.
Wellsingers was the final group to complete the concert, starting with a call and response, “Sesimfumene,” a traditional South African song. It was a heartfelt piece, and it was obvious the singers were having fun with it too. Swaying and choreographed hand motions helped signify the celebratory message of the song.
A more typical choir song they performed was “O Love” by Elain Hagenberg. Being an hopeful and wishing piece, it was emotional and moving, as well as being a favorite of Orofino.
For the last piece of the night, Wellsingers performed “Wangol,” a traditional Haitian song arranged by Sten Källman. It was a cheerful ending to the concert, with dancing and moving around on stage. The drums by Ginsberg and Villerreal added a strong beat, as well as including a solo by August Newton.
After the concert, Orofino said, “I heard a lot of positive comments from people in the audience afterwards about how much they loved the music and the passion of the students performing.”
Orofino has found the IBW community and students welcoming, and is still adjusting to the new school through lots of questions and relearning things together. “They’re very enthusiastic about singing and about their choir department, which has made working with them very fun and relatively, I would say, very easy to jump into.”
While having a fall concert is not what most of the singers are used to, “It gets the choir a lot more prepared for winter concert, and also gets students in the mindset of, we have to work a lot more because in the spring we do a competition,” says Wilde, “having another concert in there, it gives us more of a chance to get comfortable with learning new songs.”
Goah also had similar thoughts, having a concert earlier in the year helps the choirs build strong work ethic and culture.
Many of the audience members and choir students are looking forward to more. The next concert will be Dec. 17, and there are many more to come. “I think the students want to perform with a really high caliber, that’s something that’s important to them, and they want to sing in the most excellent way that they can,” says Orofino.
Looking ahead, Orofino expects at least four more concerts, aside from their spring competition schedule. He’s looking forward to the competition season where they will perform their festival music, “I’m really excited for this festival music. It’s probably my favorite music that we do.”
He is also excited to possibly get involved with choir communities outside of IBW, collaborating with feeder middle schools, being interested in working with North West Vocal Arts in March and planning on taking a group trip to Seattle, Washington.
Whichever path the program takes this year, one thing is clear, “I think that there is a lot of potential in the singers at Wells,” Orofino says, “and I’m just really excited to work with them and help them grow and watch where they go.”
