Annual concert at Benaroya Hall will feature nine Catholic high school choirs
More than 800 student singers from nine of Western Washington’s Catholic high schools will take the stage Feb. 10 at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall for the annual Festival of Catholic High School Choirs.
The concert will feature choirs from Archbishop Murphy, Bellarmine Prep, Bishop Blanchet, Eastside Catholic, Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, Holy Names Academy, Kennedy Catholic, O’Dea and Seattle Prep.
Each school will perform one song individually, and then combined men’s and women’s choirs and a select mixed choir will perform two pieces each. The combined choirs will be led by guest director Steven Zopfi, director of choral activities at the University of Puget Sound.
In years past, all singers from every school would combine to close the concert, said organizer Alison Seaton, choir director at Forest Ridge. But this year there are so many students participating that they wouldn’t all fit comfortably on the stage.
The concert will include “something for everybody,” Seaton said. “A little gospel, a little traditional choral music, a little world music, so it will be quite nice.”
The growth of the festival since its inception in the late 1990s shows that “we’re clearly filling a niche that the students need,” Seaton said. “They really want to have this experience of coming together to create art.”
Choir festival Festival of Catholic High School ChoirsMonday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m.Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., SeattleA limited number of tickets are available for $12 at the door.
February 3, 2014