Showcase of FHS choir talent Feb. 24

The Farragut community has an opportunity to hear what Farragut High School choir is learning with a free concert starting at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 24, in Vickie B. Wells Auditorium at FHS, 11237 Kingston Pike.

This concert, free and open to the public, is the choral department’s first concert of the semester.

“We’re calling this our ‘Pre-JB Lyle Concert,’ so it is all music that is being prepared for an event called JB Lyle taking place the following week,” said Mitchell Moore, director of FHS choral program. “At JB Lyle, we perform three pieces, sight read for judges and are given a rank based on skill and execution.

“This concert is to give us trial run of those pieces before we take them on the road,” he added.

About his students’ accomplishments, “I feel like the luckiest man on Earth,” Moore said. “I have some very talented, motivated students that are rising to the challenge.

“All of the choirs are mastering some difficult skills, and it’s opening up the possibility for some impressive performances,” he added.

The program has 81 students in choir this semester.

“We have two main public performances, but some of the choirs can perform up to six times a semester,” Moore said.

At the concert, “students will be performing pieces that span all the way from the Renaissance to modern music,” he said. “There are pieces in Latin, German and English, some folk songs, some mass movements and a great closing piece that all students will sing together.”

This semester, his students are learning the ins-and-outs of music.

“They are not only learning how to use their voices healthily, but also how to read music and understand music theory,” Moore said. “We have even started dabbling in some composition exercises, where students are writing their own short pieces of music.”

The director said he would like to see the community attend the concert for two reasons.

“The first, the students have worked very hard and deserve a supportive/invested audience,” Moore said. “The second, I’d like the community to have an opportunity to see the work that goes on at Farragut High. Whether it’s a choir concert, band, orchestra, musical, art show, improv show, sporting event or anything, the students at FHS are talented, and the community should see what we’re all about.”