This year has been hard for everyone. Imagine trying to conduct a music ensemble over Zoom!

But the hard work of the music department this year will finally pay off.

On Saturday, May 22, the middle school and high school music departments will be holding an outdoor concert at the Wildcat Stadium.

Justin Buer, who has taught at Dallastown for 16 years, says, “A live audience is allowed and very welcome!”

Social distancing and masks will be required at all times, but there is no limited capacity or ticketing for the event.

Anyone and everyone are encouraged to attend!

The concert will also be live-streamed on the district’s Youtube channel, which can be found here.

The DAMS Band will kick off the concert at 1 p.m. and will be followed by the middle school choir at 2:30 p.m. with the orchestra finishing the middle school’s portion at 3:45 p.m.

Next up is the high school orchestra, performing at 4:45 p.m. under the direction of Scott Kaliszak, who has been the orchestra director at Dallastown for two years.

The orchestra will be performing “Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity” from Holst’s The Planets and Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso featuring James Pechinski on solo violin.

At this point in the concert, a tribute to the late David Diehl will be read by high school choir director Jennifer McCleary, who has directed Dallastown’s high school choirs for 18 years.

There will also be an optional donation collected to create the David Diehl Award and scholarship, which will be available to students starting next year. 

The next two songs, “Pirates of the Caribbean” – featuring Katrina Wolfe on cello – and Nimrod from the Enigma Variations, were favorites of Diehl’s.

Following the tribute, the orchestra will continue with “Waltz” from the Masquerade Suite.

Jillian Fetrow will perform Pasculli’s Oboe Concerto on Themes from the opera “La Favorita” with a piano accompaniment.

“It’s been a huge challenge but I’ve been very thankful to come in and work with this group every day,” Kaliszak says. “It’s been great to just see them mature, both personally and as musicians.”

Finishing the orchestra portion will be “Perseus”, “Danzon No. 2” – which features multiple wind and string solos – and “Berceuse and Finale” from The Firebird Suite.

The high school choir ensembles, lead by McCleary, will follow the orchestra beginning at 6:15 p.m.

The concert choir will start with “Music, Lead the Way” with Riley Sharp and Emma White on soprano descant.

“The Road Home” will follow, with a soprano solo featuring Sharp.

Finishing off the first portion of the concert choir songs will be “Dirait-on” from Les Chansons des Roses and “Bring Me Little Water Silvy” with Collin Snyder on percussion.

The vocal ensemble will perform three songs: “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (featuring White), and “Benediction (Traditional Irish Blessing)”.

McCleary said the choir is particularly hard to direct this year “not being able to see the student’s mouth, or hear all of them sing (some because of masking and distance and others on Zoom) and still trying to create music that the students can be proud of.”

The concert choir will continue with “Hold on to the Rock”, with Milana Schechtman as soprano and Cecilia Giedzinski as mezzo-soprano.

Concluding the high school choir portion will be “Hushabye Mountain” from the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with a mezzo-soprano solo by Abigail Trembly; and finally, the Finding Neverland Choral Medley, which will feature multiple solos and a small group choral ensemble.

The high school band, under the direction of Buer, will finish the concert.

“There will be four different groups performing in the band portion of the concert,” says Buer.

The wind ensemble will kick it off with “Inferno”, “Molly on the Shore”, and “Groovy Loops”.

Following that, Jazz Lab will perform “Pick Up the Pieces”, “Sax to the Max”, and  “Chili Today, Hot Tamale”.

“This concert is full of moments that highlight the many talents that Dallastown Students have to offer,” said Buer. “There are solo Opportunities in almost every piece of music we are playing!”

The jazz ensemble will be playing four songs: “Feeling Good”, “Tonight, We Tango”, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, and “Arnge Drank”.

Finishing the band portion and the music department concert in its entirety, the concert band will be performing “In Joyous Flight”, “Industria”, “Heal”, “Espana Cani”, and “Jitterbug!”.

Buer says, “I feel like this concert is packed full of fun and energetic pieces, and it was a lot of fun programming it. I hope the audience truly enjoys all of them because I know I will!”

These musicians have worked through a difficult year to be able to finally showcase their talent, passion, and dedication.

So come on out on Saturday, May 22 to support the music department and all that they have accomplished this year!