The stage is illuminated and a group full of people look out into a sea of darkness, however, they know the seats are filled. The entire auditorium sings together, united. The Fall Informance is the first choir concert of the year organized by choir director Brad Wright.

“The purpose of the Fall Informance is first to provide a performance opportunity for our choirs,” Wright said. “We show the community what we are doing and where we are at during this stage of the school year.”

The Fall Informance is a concert that showcases three choirs: the Ambassadors, Bella Voce and Varsity Vocals.

“The Ambassadors was founded in 1978 as an extracurricular choir. Bella Voce was formed from the existing Women’s Chorus that was here when I took over in 1999,” Wright said. “Varsity Vocals was grown out of Chorus.  At one time we had so many students in Chorus (beginning choir) that we had to have two sections of it.”

Wright’s beginner’s choir, Chorus, was not included as a class this year due to a lack of participants.

“This year we don’t have Chorus because I was told that it wasn’t ‘load bearing,’” Wright said. “Maybe we’ll get it back next year if enough students sign up for it.”

During Bella Voce’s performance, they sang “Meadowlark” from the musical “The Baker’s Wife” in which senior Samantha Smith performed a solo.

“In the story, the baker’s wife has fallen for a younger man, but she’s feeling conflicted about leaving her husband for another man,” Smith said. “The song is about her remembering a story from her childhood about an old king, Meadowlark, and the sun god where they are trapped in a similar situation that she’s in.”

Smith said she has an emotional connection with the song, making it just that much more fun to perform.

“I like performing in general and singing is just one more way that I can do that,” Smith said. “It felt good to be able to perform and share the song with other people because now they know this song and they will be able to go and listen to it and find meaning for them personally.”

In the Fall Informance, Wright and his choirs were able to perform and at the same time inform people about what being
in a choir is all about. These choirs have ninety-nine problems but a pitch ain’t one.