On the 18th of December, Newport’s elementary, middle, and high school choirs sang in their annual winter concert. 

Each choir sang the hand-selected songs picked by choir directors Mrs. Amy Finnerty and Mrs. Rebecca Wiles, one after the other. 

The high school choir sang pieces including, “Mary, Mary” written by Mary Donnelly and George L.O. Strid, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” arranged by Steve Zegree, and “Mozart’s Celebration” by Tom Fettke. 

“Mary, Mary” is a fun and upbeat song sung by the students while they snap to the beat, adding to the fun style of the piece. 

“Mozart’s Celebration Canon” is a song with three-part rounds. Each part of the choir takes turns singing different parts of the song to all add up in the end with a “show-stopping” ending. 

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a piece with songs many people know from the hit movie, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. This composed piece is filled with slower songs such as “O, Christmas Tree” and “Christmas Time is Here,” but also with more peppy songs consisting of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Linus and Lucy.”

Innovation, a smaller group of Newport’s singers, also performed at the concert. They sang two pieces out of several that they had. The song titles were “Comfort and Joy” by Ruth Morris Gray and “Carol of the Bells” arranged by Patrick M. Liebergen. In the a cappella arrangement “Comfort and Joy,” Junior Riley Babski had a percussion solo where he played an instrument called claves.

Music teacher and director Mrs. Rebecca Wiles exclaims, “I thought all the groups did an excellent job with their performances.  I was really proud of all their hard work this fall and their performances showed off that hard work.  If only the audience could hear what they sound like in September when they start the music, they would know what a great job everyone did!” 

If she had to describe the night in one word, it would be “Bravo!”

To end the night, all three elementary, middle, and high school choirs came together on stage to sing traditional Christmas songs, lifting the Christmas spirit in the room.