By Laura Martens
Back row (from left to right): Matthew Boeding (Sr.), Rylan Edwards (Sr.), Jack Butler (Jr.), Callan Hursey (Sr.), Caleb Olson (Sr.), Andrew Hartley (So.), Nile Hootman (Jr.), Noah Ericksen (Jr.), Lucas Johnston (Jr.), Khalief Tanner (So.)
Middle row (from left to right): Maddie Thiel (Sr.), Suzie Cox (Jr.), Christina Reyna (Sr.), Camila Reyna (Jr.), Lilly Reed (Sr.), Emma Pillers (Sr.)
Front row (from left to right): Laura Martens (Sr.), Valerie Mickelson (Sr.), Brooklyn Quick (Jr.), Jordan Smith (Jr.), Aleigha Navin (Sr.)
You may have memories from your elementary school years of gathering in the gym around Christmas time for an assembly full of holiday cheer. As everyone starts to settle into their seats, you see a line of high school kids dressed in red and green walking to their singing formation. They wow the crowd with everything from dreamy acapella pieces to upbeat dancing tunes.
The Central DeWitt Chamber Singers caroling show has been one of the town’s biggest Christmas traditions for years. Everyone from children hoping to join Chamber Choir when they get to high school to adults who have grown up listening to them perform every Christmas had plenty to look forward to in this year’s set.
This year, the 11 girls and 10 boys performed in their sparkly red dresses and bow ties for a total of 13 performances, including one at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Their set consisted of 5 traditional holiday carols: Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Carol of the Bells, Angels We Have Heard on High, Jingle Bells, and The First Noel; along with a light show to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, dances to Baby it’s Cold Outside and Gettin’ in the Mood for Christmas, Pentatonix’s Halleluiah, the girl’s performance of All I Want for Christmas is You, and the guy’s performance of Text Me a Merry Christmas.
Chamber Choir caroling is not all sparkles and cheer; hours of work and planning go into making it performance-ready. Mr. Uttech, the choir director, says that the most challenging part of putting together the caroling show is finding a nice balance between songs that are difficult and fun because “if everything is super hard, it’s not going to be any fun and we’ll probably have to cut a bunch of pieces; if everything is super easy, it won’t sound like our caliber that we expect and that everybody expects of Chamber.”
Even though it can be a struggle for both Mr. Uttech and Chamber Choir members to prepare everything, it is all worth it to see the show come together. Mr. Uttech says the most rewarding thing about caroling is “the feelings you give people as they’re listening and thinking of people from kindergarten all the way up until they’re 95 plus … such a wide spectrum of people who enjoy (Chamber Choir).”
Now that another successful caroling season has come to a close, the members of Chamber Choir are excitedly preparing for their next concert. Still, nothing can quite compare to the joy of caroling.
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