Spectrum performs annual revue
TOM PINNEY/DAILY FORUM
Spectrum students and their parents pose after singing Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” at the end of their spring revue. Spectrum says goodbye to 12 seniors this year.
Spectrum loves rock and roll.
The Maryville High School show choir performed its annual revue over the weekend, a show which included their competition set with some solo and ensemble performances interspersed between.
They opened the show with their contest opener, which emcees and seniors Colin Arnold and Emily Gascoigne mentioned received the award for Best Opener at the Cameron festival. Arnold and Gascoigne had various segues and jokes throughout the show.
As the overall group performed their set, mostly consisting of classic 1980s rock numbers, the soloists and ensembles performed music from all genres, from Broadway musicals to Hollywood musicals, from pop music to contemporary Christian music. Director Vanessa Parsons said this show was important because of everything it showcased.
“When we sing as a large group, you don’t necessarily hear all of the individual voices,” Parsons said. “With this show, we gave people an opportunity to showcase how much talent we have.
“We have so many multitalented kids, and they got a chance to showcase that talent tonight. We had kids playing guitars, ukuleles, we even had an eighth grader sit in for our drummer tonight and you wouldn’t have guessed that he hadn’t played with us before.”
After intermission, Parsons recognized all of the seniors with brief introductions and a gift. Each senior stood on stage with their parents as Parsons encouraged them to keep dancing.
Parsons also announced the results of a fundraiser Spectrum was holding for a competitor. Over the weekend, Spectrum collected donations from patrons for Paul Hart, the head vocal music director at St. Joseph Central High School whose 5-year-old son Andrew was recently diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine giloma, an inoperable brain tumor.
In total, Spectrum raised $2,000 to send Hart and his family to Disney World.
The show continued with several solos and ensembles before Spectrum wrapped with “Faithfully,” “Any Way You Want It,” and “Livin’ on a Prayer.” The group then invited their parents and families on the stage for an encore performance of “Any Way You Want It.”
In addition to his solo in the opening number, senior Chase Graves performed “Out There” from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. With the show over, he said it was a bittersweet feeling.
“It’s great to see how we’ve progressed over the last four years,” Graves said. “It’s changed all of our lives.”
“We really reached our peak this year,” Arnold added. “It feels like we did everything we could this year, and we left a great group to keep getting better as time goes on.”
Senior Anna Swink added to her parts in the group numbers with a quartet version of “Count on Me,” which she performed with senior Anna Throm, junior Becky Meyers, and sophomore Natalie Mason.
“We get together five to six times a week to practice, plus a lot of time over break,” Swink said. “Getting together was always so much fun because you get to know other people and who they really are, all the way down to each person’s personality quirks.
“We were really a family here.”
That family atmosphere made Parsons confident that it wasn’t goodbye.
“These seniors showed me the ropes when I first got here, so it’s hard to see them leave,” Parsons said. “But we always say that it isn’t goodbye, it’s just a see you later because we do so much for our alumni.
“I have the greatest job in the world, I really do. I get to have fun, sing, and dance with these kids who are really just fun to be around. They’re awesome, and I can’t wait to see what they do from here.”