Hermiston High School is making sure audience members will be treated to a powerful vocal sound when Oregon East Symphony and Chorale performs Handel’s “Messiah” twice this month.
The school’s choir director, Jordan Bemrose, is contributing about 150 singers to plus-up the vocals for performances at Pendleton’s Vert Auditorium on Dec. 10, at 2:30 p.m., and at her own high school on Dec. 13, at 7 p.m.
That number of singers from Hermiston will likely be pared down just to fit everyone on the Vert Auditorium stage, according to Oregon East Symphony Executive Director J.D. Kindle.
We will have about 45 singers from the Symphony Chorale, and about another 45 singers from the Pendleton High School a Cappella Choir, and Hermiston will be sending about 150 singers,” Kindle said. “That’s about 250 singers, and a lot to fit on the Vert stage, so we’ll have about 80 Hermiston singers for the Pendleton performance.”
The full force of Hermiston’s vocal power will be performing at their own high school Dec. 13, Kindle said.
“This idea was brought to us by Jordan Bemrose of Hermiston High School and Emily Muller-Carey of Pendleton High School late in the game in October,” Kindle said, “and we were very excited by it.”
Kindle said the orchestra was concerned the audience attendance might be smaller than anticipated.
“This is the first time the audience has seen a fully-performed concert since the Pandemic,” he said, “and we were really interested in bolstering the number of singers.”
Kindle said the organizers needed to scramble to pay for the second performance at Hermiston High School, because it had not been planned.
“Thankfully, due to support from the Greater Hermiston Community Foundation, and some business sponsors, we were able to make that happen,” Kindle said.
Bemrose and her students got to work at Hermiston High School.
“A lot of people know this beautiful work and we need to keep it alive,” Bemrose said of the Handel oratorio.
“I think it’s pretty fun, but there’s definitely challenging parts of it,” said Ariah Phillips,16, a junior. “I also do it twice a day. I have this class and then I’m in the girls’ choir, so it makes it a lot easier to learn.”
“I sang the Hallelujah Chorus my sophomore year,” said Oliver Carcamo, 18, a senior, “but there was COVID in our music department so we didn’t get to perform it. We learned it, but this is the first time I’ve done the full score.”
Actually, there are some cuts in the score to be performed at Vert Auditorium and Hermiston High School, Kindle said. The performance will showcase about the first half of the whole score, with the Hallelujah Chorus and fugue of “Amen” added to conclude the performance.
“I think that being here in eastern Oregon, and us not having as many big orchestras, Broadway, and musicals coming through, we need to give these kids as much opportunity to perform great works as possible to keep music going in our culture,” Bemrose said.
“Messiah” already comes wrapped up in greatness.
“Handle was a master of text painting,” said Oregon East Symphony Assistant Conductor Zachary Banks, who will be conductor for these performances. “That’s using the instrumental music and the choice of notes to really serve the text of this oratorio in really interesting and exciting ways.”
Banks suggested that the ends justify the perspiration.
“No matter how hard it is to organize these things, I just keep thinking of the end result of the rewards of what this performance will be, and what it will mean to everybody,” Banks said, “and that’s all the motivation I need.”
And just like everyone else, “I’m absolutely looking forward to that Hallelujah Chorus,” he said.
How much for the tickets ️ at the school performance on December 13 th 2023