Arne Petryshen
This weekend, the Mount Baker Secondary and Selkirk Secondary school choirs will take the stage with the Symphony of the Kootenays at the Key City Theatre.
The school choirs will perform Stella Natalis, composed by Karl Jenkins, alongside the soprano and trumpet soloists of the symphony.
Evan Bueckert, from Mount Baker Secondary, and Sven Sven Heyde, from Selkirk Secondary, have been preparing the student choirs for the performance.
It will all come together Saturday night.
“Our two concert choirs are joining forces with the Symphony to do a new work by Karl Jenkins,” Heyde said. “Jenkins is sort of a famous cross-over performer, so it’s half classical and half pop.”
The joint choir make up 110 voices alongside the symphony.
Heyde said it’s about a 30 minute performance.
“This is the first time we’ve done this with both the choirs together, all in one big group like that,” he said.
Heyde said both he and Bueckert had worked with Symphony conductor Jeff Faragher in the past.
“Evan’s done lots of work with the Symphony and conducted with them before,” he said. “And I’ve been playing with the Symphony for years. So we’ve sort of known each other professionally for a while and it just sort of seemed like a good opportunity.”
Heyde said it’s taken a lot of preparation, but the two choirs didn’t meet for the first time until Thursday, at which time they ironed out any of the inconsistencies for the performance.
“So far it’s been a lot of Evan and I teaching it to our own choirs and checking with Jeff to see what he wants, and that kind of stuff,” Heyde said. “With a little bit of luck it will all work out.”
The Christmas concert also includes a Piano Concerto featuring the winner of the Student Concerto Pianist competition.
The concert is Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Key City Theatre.