CHS Music Department presents 'The Sounds of the Season'
<span>On Dec. 14, the Chester High School Music Department presented its annual holiday concert, "The Sounds of the Season." The event featured three primary music ensembles of the fall semester, including the Concert Choir, Concert Band and Swing Choir "Sound Affect."</span>
<span> "Your continued support over the years has helped the Music Department at Chester High School and throughout the Chester School District grow and flourish becoming one of the premiere music programs in Southern Illinois," CHS Band and Choral Director Steve Colonel said.</span>
<span>The Concert Choir sang four songs including "Carol of the Bells," "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth," "Silent Night" and "December Prayer."</span>
<span>The Concert Choir was accompanied by pianist Vicky Beers.</span>
<span>The CHS Concert Band also performed four songs including "Sleigh Ride," "Dance of the Slippery Slide Trombones," "Merry Christmas Darling" and A Mad Russian's Christmas."</span>
<span>Members of the Concert Band, Concert Choir and Concert band passed baskets around during an intermission to collect money to support the Monroe-Randolph County Human Service Center's Toy Drive. </span>
<span>The CHS Music Department has conducted this goodwill effort for several years and money collected is used to help make sure that needy children in the area have a happy holiday.</span>
<span>Guests were also encouraged to bring canned goods to the concert. These cans of food were donated to the local food pantry. </span>
<span>Members of the band and choral groups chipped in and bought a Christmas gift for CHS Band and Choral Director Steve Colonel, as is the usual practice from year-to-year. </span>
<span>This year the group purchased a nutcracker yard decoration. In addition, the band and choral students purchased a new electronic music receiver to replace the outdated and poorly-working one that Colonel uses in his music room to help teach his many music classes.</span>
<span>Colonel thanked the students for the gifts and noted that his current receiver "has seen its better days."</span>
<span>Finally, the CHS "senior" band and choral members had a new hand-made trophy case made for Colonel.</span>
<span>The case was personally made specifically for Colonel by band and choral parent Kenny Grunewald. </span>
<span>Colonel promised that this year, the band was dedicating their efforts to win a top prize in the 2016 IHSA Music Sweepstakes. </span>
<span>The concert ended with a four-part performance by the CHS "Sound Affect" swing choir, which is a select group based upon auditions each year.</span>
<span>The swing choir started their portion of the show with "Let's Have a Christmas Celebration" and featured soloist Trent Doiron.</span>
<span>The second performance was titled "Christmas Time is Here" with Kylie Liefer reciting a portion of "Linus' Christmas Story."</span>
<span>The third performance was titled "Text Me Merry Christmas" that featured nine soloists - Alexis McMath, Brooke Wahl, Justin Stehl, Alex Westbrook, Lucas Doiron, Allaynah Price, Mitchell Colonel, Kylie Liefer and Avry Sebastian. </span>
<span>Finally, the event concluded with "Joy to the World." Soloists were Jackie Hopkins and Montana Rose.</span>
<span>The small group singers were Elizabeth Heffernan, Emma Naeger, Alex Phillips, Allaynah Price, Avery Sebastian and Alex Westbrook.</span>