With the graduation of the seniors of Potomac Falls last year, the school’s choir department saw a large portion of their singers leave for college. Freshmen with a passion for singing entered, creating a new environment for both newcomers and upperclassmen. For the freshmen, the winter choir concert on Thursday, Dec. 6 will be a first, resulting in excitement from choir director Dawn Phillips.

“When [the seniors] left, that was a big change,” said Phillips. “We then had a huge group of freshmen come in, so there’s a really different excitement to it because we’ve got all these new people.”

This year’s choir concert entails a mixture of holiday-themed songs performed by each different choir group. The a capella group Panthera will be singing a mix of traditional holiday songs followed by a piece in Spanish while the men’s a capella group is performing a number from Jersey Boys.

The Jazz Choir has been working on a medley of different Christmas songs including “I Love the Winter Weather” and “I’ve Got my Love to Keep Me Warm.” The beginning group, the Cantante Choir, will be singing a variety of songs, those of which are a mix of folk songs, spirituals, and classical music.

“You can expect some jazz, you can expect some more traditional songs… it’s all going to be holiday-themed, so, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” said senior Zora Grace, choir member.

The Show Choir will be performing a medley of music created by the famous Johnny Marks, the writer of classic songs such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.”

“[The medley is] always really fun because it’s all the classic holiday songs in one, and I think it’ll really help to get everybody in the holiday spirit because it’s so upbeat and jazzy,” said Grace.

Lastly, the school’s Chamber Choir will be singing a piece in Hebrew that will be accompanied by a few members of the Orchestra with a piece composed by Phillips herself. The concert will be closed with a piece called “Gloria.”

“I love the Hebrew piece that Chamber Choir is doing because it’s so neat for us to be able to have the strings accompanying us,” said Phillips. “It’s something really different for us, so that’s exciting to me.”

In preparation for the concert, all of the choirs have been working together to perfect their performances. For Grace, her practice consisted of arriving to practice with her designated singing and dancing partner.

“I love choir,” said Grace. “It’s so fun to show up and just get to sing, dance and do all that stuff. It’s really great.”

Often focused on with both their concerts and choir itself is the sense of unity they work hard to bring in their performances. Phillips said her goal during her time instructing is to build a strong community of passionate singers. Working well as an individual is one major factor to success, but the ability to work well as an ensemble proves much more helpful later in their singing careers.

“That’s always my goal—that we’ll become a community of singers that’s focused on something bigger than the individual,” said Phillips.