BRIDGEPORT – Musical talent was on full display at Bridgeport Exempted Village School District during the Dec. 18 winter concert. Parents and families turned out in the hundreds to watch singers from the fifth through the 12th grades celebrate the holidays.
Bridgeport Middle School Principal Anne Haverty Lawson was seen wheeling out extra chairs to meet the demand, and the cafetorium was still standing room only.
Band Director Kyle Turley and Choir Director Ashley Krieger directed the program as their students took the stage for the big night.
Krieger welcomed district families and presented the fifth-grade choir.
“These students have worked so hard. It is such a joy being their teacher and they are so excited.”
They performed a selection of songs, including “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “Believe” and “A Very Merry Christmas.” Soloists Kazriel Kovalcik, Aviana Hall, Sophia Bokone, Karmyn Repik, Kendall Kreiter and Caylee Nicola shone.
The high school choir performed “All I Want for Christmas is You,” “Silent Night,” God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Carol of the Bells.” Brooke Wolfe played the flute and sang a solo.
The fifth-grade band played a selection from their beginning book, then the sixth graders took their turn with songs including “Dreidel Spinning Top.”
The high school concert band treated the audience to some Christmas songs from their favorite movies and shows.
To wrap up the evening, the seventh through 12th-grade band and middle and high school choir assembled and invited the audience to join in.
Afterward, Turley was overjoyed with the evening’s success and congratulated his students. He is looking forward to seeing them grow from strength to strength.
“The music department’s doing great things here at Bridgeport, and good things are in the foreseeable future.”
Always innovative, he added his young musicians will be using some new software beginning in January to help him assign them different parts of music.
“The kids will record themselves playing and that way I can give individualized feedback to help them figure out what they can improve on and what they’re doing pretty well.”
The band program currently boasts 82 members, 20 more than last school year.
“Major growth has been seen since last year, and we’re only going up from here. I’m excited to get my numbers up with the incoming fifth graders in the spring,” he said. “We’ve grown immensely since last year and I’m hoping for the spring when we get fourth-grade recruitment that it goes up even more.”
Turley has some great talent to work with. The fifth and sixth graders are practicing hard and excited to be part of the program.
“They’ve been improving every day.”
Krieger also shared congratulations.
“Very proud of the choir and band students. They worked really hard learning their music. They really seemed to enjoy the selections that they performed tonight.”
She said the audience was another source of encouragement.
“What a wonderful crowd we had tonight! Huge attendance and it’s always great to see so many family members supporting the students. That really means a lot when they look out and see the smiling faces of their loved ones.”
Bridgeport High School Principal Jack Fisher applauded the festive performance.
“They’re doing a great job. Mr. Turley and Ms. Krieger led some great performances. You can clearly see the kids are doing great. They’re excelling, they’re learning, they’re having fun. It was nice,” he said. “It was an absolute packed house. We had every chair in the building out. We had over 500 chairs out and we had some standing still.”
Havery Lawson agreed.
“It was the biggest concert we’ve ever had.”
The students continued their melodies the next day when they performed for the residents of Rolling Hills Care Center Dec. 19.
