Photos by Rome City Schools
The Rome High School auditorium buzzed with excitement and cheers as the Fall Chorus Concert began on Tuesday night, September 25.
Directed by LeAnna Fleming and accompanied on piano by Jennifer Williams, the different student choirs of Rome High astounded with the depth and sincerity of their performances.
The concert began with Jay Althouse’s “Cantar!” by the Men’s Ensemble, with lively latin-style percussion accompaniment provided by students Daniel Davis and Ivan Felipe.
The following presentations were by the Beginning, Advanced and Combined Women’s Choirs. The songs ranged in styles; from long, sweet ballads to upbeat jazz numbers.
One particular piece, “Music Down in my Soul” by Moses Hogan, even had the entire audience clapping along with the Advanced Women’s Chorus as they sang.
Next, the Grand Finale Show Choir provided the audience with a sneak peak at their spring competition show song: “Ease On Down the Road” by Mac Huff. Accompanied on piano by Christopher Nguyen, the performance featured soloists Blake Lieberman, Keith Diamond and Will Benefield.
Christopher Nguyen is a Rome High senior whose aspiration is to become a choral director and choral composer. He said he wanted to become an accompanist because “my piano teacher told me that all choral composers can all play piano very well, so I decided that that being an accompanist would be a good thing to add to my resume.”
The evening concluded with exciting performances from the Advanced Chorale and Combined Mixed Choirs. The Advanced Chorale particularly shined by singing Victor C. Johnson’s “Jubilate, Exsultate,” which they had memorized in Latin and English.
Chorus Director, LeAnna Fleming, said that her students did not even struggle to learn the Latin parts. “I could tell that the piece would sound good with their voices. I’m very proud of them. They want to be
challenged, and they actually ask me for harder music; so it’s really refreshing, but it’s also kind of intimidating that they’re always wanting me to push them! I really couldn’t ask for anything better!” she smiled.
Rome High School Principal, Dr. Eric Holland, beamed with excitement when asked about the performance. He was exceptionally proud of the students and Fleming for putting on such an amazing concert. “I want to give a shout out to Ms. Fleming. For her first show and for her to be fresh out of college, that was amazing! After 19 years of attending events like this, I can say that’s one of the best openings I’ve seen for someone who’s getting her career started. It’s impressive!” he said.
Despite this being her very first concert, Fleming has bright hopes for the rest of the year and for her students. “We have a few more concerts this year, and then in the spring, we will sing for our LGPE (Large Group Performance Evaluation), which is a performance assessment for band and chorus in the state of Georgia. I’ll be taking the advance groups there to be judged and rated on two different selections. It’s a big deal to make sure you get top ratings, so that’s what we’re going to focus on for the rest of the year,” Fleming said.
