Maine East Winter Holiday Concert

Maine East High School music students will treat the community to a special Winter Holiday Concert on Sunday, December 11, at 2 p.m. in the school auditorium featuring, among others, the works of Leonard Bernstein, George Frideric Handel and Camille Saint-Saëns.

One of the spotlight pieces will be the Maine East Orchestra’s presentation of The Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns; a 14-movement piece often used as a music education tool because it wonderfully puts on display the sounds of many different instruments.  Thanks to a generous donation from the Maine Township High School District 207 Educational Foundation, the Fine Arts Department is renting an additional Steinway Grand Piano that will permit the school to bring in two professional pianists required for this presentation. The pianists are Northern Illinois University Professor William Koehler and Alexander Djordjevic, the 2010 recipient of the Hungarian Liszt Society’s 35th Annual Franz Liszt International Grand Prix du Disque – and the husband of Maine East Director of Orchestras Sarah Djordjevic.  East English and Poetry Teacher David Hessert will narrate poems penned by Ogden Nash for each of the 14 movements.

East Director of Bands Pam Holt will lead her Wind Ensemble through John Philip Sousa’s White Rose March as well as a few pieces to highlight the percussion section.  The Wind Ensemble will conclude with Leonard Bernstein’s Suite from Candide.  Holt said her students are rehearsing intensely, “striving to meet the level of musicianship that Bernstein requires in this piece.” It truly is an “amazing piece of music,” as noted by East Fine Arts Department Chair Edward Eubank.  The Symphonic Band will perform Sousa’s The Gladiator and Tallis Prelude.

East Director of Choirs Michael Boyle will direct his Men’s Chorale, Combined Women’s Ensemble and the Chamber Choir.  Among the vocal selections will be a jazzy rendition of  We Three Kings and You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch by the Men’s Chorale,  In the Bleak of Winter and Exaudi! Laudate! by the Combined Women’s Ensemble as well as Candlelight Carol and Handel’s Hallelujah, Amen by the Chamber Choir.

Maine East will also present the concert Monday to approximately 1,200 elementary and middle school students from East Maine School District 63.