Nanuet Senior HS Holds Annual Winter Concert (VIDEO)

Nanuet high school was filled with both music and holiday spirit on Tuesday night as the school’s music department put on its annual winter concert. Members of the choir, string orchestra, chamber orchestra, symphony orchestra and symphonic band all participated in the show.

The concert opened with a television clip called John Do My Job in which CBS meteorologist John Elliot came to Nanuet and spent the day conducting the school’s orchestra and band. Invited by Nanuet’s Director of Music Dr. Jack Gremli, Elliot was shown conducting the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.

“It was a lot of fun and he was intelligent and actually knows music very well; and in the piece it said that he cheated because he knows how to conduct,” said Dr. Gremli laughing. The winter concert then began in earnest as the orchestra opened with the piece featured in the clip, Serenade for Strings.

Gremli has been the director of music at Nanuet for 15 years, and is proud of the students and district alike. 

“The support we get from the community is just absolutely incredible, both fiscally and physically, everybody is here, whenever anything is justified we get financial support behind it,” Gremli said, noting that the dedication shown by the students is impressive.

“The kids have always been wonderful, they practice, they’ve been here more than we’d like them to be, we have to kick them out sometimes, we say go home go home. It’s just been really delightful.”

The string orchestra continued the evening’s show under the direction of Ms. Katherine Rife, playing pieces by Vivaldi, Bartok and even a modern arrangement of Auld Lang Syne by Mannheim Steamroller’s Chip Davis.

“They’ve been working diligently this fall and as you’ll see in the progression in their abilities of which I’m very proud,” said Rife of her students. She added that this evening’s show is important to her on a personal level as well.

“It means a great deal to me because I invest a lot of my own time and energy and care and attention and a lot of extra hours to try to make it meaningful for them and then give them something they can use for the rest of their lives.”

The school’s concert choir and symphonic band also participated in the event with both modern and classical holiday-themed pieces.  The choir sang Sing We and Chant It, Hannukah Madrigal and You Raise Me Up, after which the band played a selection of pieces such as Gustav Holt’s Fantasia on the Dargason and the holiday favorite Sleigh Ride.

The winter concert concluded as the symphonic band was joined by the combined choirs and orchestras in a rousing rendition of Winter Wonderland that earned a standing ovation from the audience.  

Check out this for dates and times of the other three Nanuet Winter concerts.

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