Boothbay Regions High School (BRHS) Seahawk Singers performed their annual winter concert Jan. 29, at the Southport United Methodist Church. The concert, typically held before Christmas, was a rescheduled event. About 35 attended.

Dr. Mary Miller played piano and directed the chorus through ten songs.

The concert began with “Psallite Hodie” (Waggoner, 2018) an upbeat, festive song that combines English and Latin words with themes of “singing out joyfully,” offering an elevated descant performed by Kai Pitcher before returning to a full choral harmonization ending.

“Festival Sanctus” (Albrecht, 2005), followed by “Everlasting Light” (Harnick, Shire, 1998) showing the chorus’ range through songs with sharp contrasts. “What do the Stars Do?” a melodic, treble-focused song, composed by Porterfield and adapted from a Rossetti poem of the late 1800’s, was performed by the full choir. Another poem, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” (Longfellow, 1863) converted to Christmas carol and arranged by Hayes (2017) was performed with Suzie Edwards, Maine All State Chorus veteran and recently renewed, singing the descant role.

Miller routinely adds pop interest mid-order on the program and in keeping, selected two British pop songs, adapted for choral performance, halfway through the show. A Beatles favorite, “Blackbird” (1968) arranged by Brymer was performed by the full ensemble, followed by Ezra’s “Budapest” (Barnett, Pott, 2015) arranged by Huff, included a folk-rock style solo by Pitcher.

The full chorus then performed “After the Rain,” a beautiful song by Canadian composer Sarah Quartel from 2022 that reminds us to find beauty in challenging times.

Concluding the evening, “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” an African spiritual arranged by Albrecht, scored for four-part harmony, (soprano, alto, tenor, base) with divisi and a solo by Sarah Harris, and “Cornerstone” (Kirchner, 2014) a contemporary Easter gospel with an uplifting message, “O the stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone of a whole new world” demonstrating that people are never marginal, that they become building blocks of the future. Hannah Hills and Edwards, multi-year Maine All State Chorus members, sang solos in this final song.