Voices soar in a classroom; singing the songs of the holidays. They sing their way through days of exams, arriving at the final week before winter break. They still sing the same songs, but now, it is for over 1,000 people.
Senior Emma Faye Pruitt is a member of Wando Show Choir, which is performing at the Gaillard Center for the annual Holiday POPS! concert on December 19, 20, and 21.
“It’s really exciting,” Pruitt said. “You’re working on these pieces for so long, and it can feel so drawn out at times… but when you’re actually there…. you realize that all your hard work was worth it.”
Since mid-October, Show Choir has been practicing holiday songs in preparation for the event, where they are singing alongside the Charleston Symphony. Closer to the concert, they begin to rehearse. The rehearsals are intense; four hours long on the two days before the concert’s opening night.
“I think it’s going to be hard,” Pruitt said. “But… the only people involved are people that are fully committed.”
At the rehearsals, Show Choir works beside the professional musicians that perform Holiday POPS! each year.
“We’re not singing the whole show [at rehearsals], but we’re singing… with the [Charleston Symphony] orchestra and then the Holiday POPS! choir… because we’re pretty solidified on the actual songs… it’s just… the timing of it,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt does not find hundreds of audience members to be daunting, in fact, she looks forward to it.
“I think it’s fun… it’s so great to see how many people come to appreciate such good music,” Pruitt said. “And we’re singing a lot of very classical pieces… so it’s really refreshing to see.”
Sophomore Sean Baldwin is in his first year with Show Choir, which has become his community to practice and perform with.
“I just like it to be part of this program that… all my friends are in, and… I feel like I have kind of… a family in school,” Baldwin said.
At the Holiday POPS! concert, Pruitt and Baldwin sing their hearts out while Justin Clarkson, a tubist with the Charleston Symphony, plays his instrument with just as much enthusiasm.
“For me, [playing music] started off as a way to go places and do things… I got to go to Chicago, and then I toured the US. I ended up doing three tours of Mexico, all because of the instrument,” Clarkson said. “Then I have transitioned more into… the love of teaching and sharing that art.”
This is Clarkson’s fourth year playing Holiday POPS! with the Charleston Symphony, but he always feels the thrill of performing.
“It’s terrifying, it’s exhilarating, it’s exciting, it’s fun… Your adrenaline’s pumping, your heart rate is up, but you’re doing it alongside some great people and friends… and then you really start to enjoy the process, you start to have fun with it,” Clarkson said.
Although Clarkson is a professional playing alongside the high schoolers of Wando’s Show Choir, they are all one and the same while on stage.
“I think the Wando chorus is about as professional as you can get in a high school choir,” Clarkson said. “[They are] a superb performing ensemble, and so it makes absolute sense that they would be selected to perform with the symphony. They need reliable, professional, accurate musicians in that choir, and that’s hard to find a lot of times, especially because a lot of singers don’t work with orchestra a lot… and I think the Wando chorus is gonna’ shine in that setting.”