Chorus carols for winter concert

Their winter concert had not even passed, but the Statesmen Singers were getting plenty of showtime through gigs in the community. The holidays are a concert season for the Statesmen Singers, who performed at five caroling gigs around the area in addition to this year’s pyramid winter concert.

“For the Statesmen Singers, the whole season is their performance and the concert to them is another gig,” choral director Keri Staley said. “Each performance that they do in the community is an opportunity.”

The Statesmen Singers have been at Marshall events like the Holiday Expo, as well as outside venues like Acacia Federal Savings Bank and the Tysons-Pimmit Library. The gigs have two purposes: the singers fundraise and reach out to the community.

“The holidays are a great time to do that because people have sense memories to music,” Staley said.

“We always have young and old come,” Staley said. “You can see when people hear the music that’s familiar to them, they really relate and enjoy it.”

The pyramid concert at Marshall was an opportunity to reach out to the youth. It included three to four hundred singers. These students came from Freedom Hill, Lemon Road, Shrevewood and Westgate Elementary Schools and Kilmer Middle School. Both of Marshall’s choirs performed as well. Each school performed separate songs but their finale, “Sleigh Ride,” was sung together.

Beneath all of this fun, though, was a serious purpose. “The purpose of [the pyramid concert] is to see the growth from the elementary to the middle to the high schools,” Staley said.

“Hopefully, since they started [chorus] at such a young age, they’ll stay in choir throughout middle and high school,” sophomore Vivi Nghiem said.

The choir inserted a “hahaha” into “Sleigh Ride” and a small bit of choreography. “I think that’s just a lot of fun — adding our own type of style into the songs,” sophomore Melissa E said.