GRB Holiday Concert featured a special treat

The G. Ray Bodley (GRB) High School Holiday Concert was held recently and in welcoming the audience, GRB Principal Donna Parkhurst told them, “You’ll leave our show tonight singing, and in the holiday mood!”

The concert featured a pre-concert by Full Effect, a jazz group at the school, with favorites like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and “Jingle Bell Rock,” as audience members took their seats.

The GRB Concert Band performed “Sleigh Bells Jingling,” hauntingly beautiful “The Seal Lullaby,” and a medley of songs called “Christmas Sing-a-long” for all to join in and sing.

Full Effect returned to perform “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “A Child is Born,” and the first of two versions of “Greensleeves.”

The Wind Ensemble performed what has become a holiday classic, “The Polar Express,” the second version of “Greensleeves,” which Caveness confessed is one of his favorite holiday songs, thus the two versions.

The high school concert featured a very special treat; a guest conductor. A ticket was drawn and Alanna Loosen’s name was drawn.

The four-year-old quietly took the stage and after some pointers by band director Terrance Caviness to keep the baton up and moving, Loosen conducted the band during their performance of “Sleigh Ride.”

At one point, she allowed the baton to rest on the conductor’s stand and to the audience’s delight and Loosen’s surprise, the band stopped playing at which time Caviness returned to the stage and conferred with Loosen reminding her once again to keep the baton up and moving, a task she continued to do until the final note was played. The audience loved it.

The final piece “Christmas on Broadway” featured holiday favorites from Broadway productions, and as Principal Parkhurst had foretold, audience members left the show humming and in glorious holiday spirit.

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