Snippets of Christmas classics delighted an audience of 400 as high school students danced in the aisles, Santa tossed out candy canes and the Christopher High School choir began to sing.
Carolers in jeans and winter scarves stood to the left of the Rucker Elementary School’s multipurpose room stage and sang, before eventually donning formal tuxedos and full-length black dresses and standing on the recently constructed, brand new stage.
The Christopher High School choir – now led by new choir director Claire Massey – held its Winter Lights Celebration on Friday and Saturday. It was the first time anyone had ever performed in the new space.
“I thought it was great,” said Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Debbie Flores, who complimented the space’s sound and decorations. “I think for our debut performance, it couldn’t have been better.”
Several parents agreed the new location was way better than the school cafeteria, where the students performed their fall concert.
“It was a 100 times better than the Christopher dining commons. The sound was so much better,” said Lee O’Connor, whose daughter performed in the choir on Saturday. “It was like watching two different choirs.”
Parents of students who joined CHS and Gilroy High School choirs for the first time this year judged the new concert venue based on the only other concert venue their child had performed in: the school cafeteria.
That’s because the school district made an internal administrative decision last summer barring choir concerts from being held in churches.
Following complaints from members of the public over the years, the district became concerned that holding choir concerts in churches was a violation of the separation of church and state and asked for legal counsel, Flores said. She was advised that public schools can only perform in churches if the district does not have adequate facilities for performances.
Following a parent uprising, which included a petition signed by more than 1,000 choir alumni, students and parents, the Board of Education suspended the new rule, which will go into effect next year. The ban was only reversed this school year since the district was in the middle of making improvements to the acoustics at GHS’s Student Center and constructing the Rucker multipurpose room theater.
“It’s much better than the cafeteria,” said Hayley Matto.
Matto said she’s heard that church acoustics are better, although she has never watched her daughter – who joined the CHS Women’s Chorus this year – perform in one.
Parents of students who performed in Gilroy choirs for multiple years said the multipurpose room theater worked for this concert, but different venues may be needed for other kinds of concerts.
“I think the facility is great and it accommodates a lot of people,” said Cindy Walling, whose son has performed in the school’s elite Chamber Choir for two years. “The church acoustics were better.”
During a previous rehearsal in the Rucker multipurpose room, Massey made the troubling discovery that the students couldn’t hear themselves. The sound floated into the room, but didn’t bounce off the walls of the room and return to the singers, she explained.
“I am not so concerned about what the audience will hear because I think that will be fine,” adds Massey. “One big thing that we did find when we were rehearsing acoustically over there is the students could not hear themselves or each other.”
The Rucker multipurpose room worked out for the winter concert, but it might not be so ideal for more complicated, acoustical music in which students have to hear and respond to the other parts of the choir in order to successfully execute the pieces, Massey explained.
