The BSM Fine Arts is proud to announce that they will be hosting a surprise pops concert on October 30th! Conducted by Band Director Josey Gruba and Choir Teacher Miriam Augsburger, the concert choir and band are excited to perform a large arrangement of the most-listened-to-pop hits throughout the years.
For the first time in BSM history, the fine arts department will be performing an additional pop concert to kick off the 2nd quarter. After about two months of hard work, Gruba explains how she sought to draw a bigger audience and promote the performing arts department. According to her, the upcoming concert will be the perfect opportunity for the students to display their talents, as the semester is too long for only one concert. “We felt like having only two concerts a year was not enough for a semester-long class, especially for the high school. We decided that having a fall pops concert would be fun [and] low pressure, but still a concert to get ready for,” Gruba said.
It wasn’t all that easy for the teachers to pick music for this concert. Both teachers worked extremely hard choosing music that would best entertain the BSM community while granting a thought-through learning experience for each performing arts student. “I always want to make sure that I’m giving my students high-quality music because that’s our curriculum, the music that we sing. I knew that the Beatles music is high-quality music that I could feel good about spending a lot of time teaching my students,” Augsburger said.
From the student’s perspective, rehearsals have been going great for both the concert choir and band! They both emphasize the satisfaction of hearing the songs put together after a lot of hard work and dedication to each other and every individual music piece. “After practicing certain elements of the song, just seeing it all wrapped together, and you play it from front to finish, it was so good,” Cape said.
With all in consideration, the fine arts program can hardly wait to showcase their hard work to the community. Although it can be misunderstood, the concert choir and band are ready to demonstrate that their program offers a fun and engaging experience for all students. This is a large result of their welcoming environment, a strong passion for music, and an entertaining selection of musical pieces. “I am hoping that it is just a fun experience because I think there’s sometimes this idea that band and choir,[is] all stuffy classical music and not fun, when that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Gruba said.