On Dec. 13 and 16, 2016, around 180 Watertown Middle School kids in red chorus shirts walked down the auditorium aisles in joy with the beats from the percussion ensemble singing “Jambo.”

It was followed by “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening,” a quiet peaceful song filled with nature and love, accompanied by the hand chime choir and piano.

Next, from the 11-time Tony Award-winning musical, “Hamilton” came “The Room Where It Happens,” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

It was followed by “Follow the Drinking Gourd” from sixth-grade chorus.

The program moved to “Where I’m From,” written by Cluster 4 seventh-graders, and a short part from “The Sound of Music,” the school’s spring musical.

Finishing the night was “A Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler, which was performed by the entire WMS chorus.

Chorus teacher Abby Casey said, “Every song I pick has some kind of skill to be acquired.”

For example, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” has a dynamic contrast and “Jambo” has sort of a loud happiness to it.

She believes “every piece of music has a poem to go with it, literacy and music go together.”

She chose to do “The Room Where It Happens” because it tells a story and it includes lots of solos, this time featuring Adam Haloui as Aaron Burr, Marissa Del Carmen as Alexander Hamilton, and Millicent Abboud as James Madison.

She chose “A Total Eclipse of the Heart” by accident, as she heard someone singing it and thought it would be fun for chorus to do.

She chose “Where I’m From” because she was looking at the poems in the hallway of Cluster 4 and thought it was really beautiful and cool, so she sat down and brought a bunch of poems together into a song.

Overall, Ms. Casey believes the chorus did a great job at both the night concert and the school concert. She said, “Our school’s B [grade] is another school’s A-plus job.”

–April 18, 2017–