WESTFORD — The Westford Chorus performed family favorites and classics at last weekend’s concert.
Guests gathered at the United Methodist Church of Westford on Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. to hear “While We’ve Been Singing” performed by Westford’s community chorus and directed by James Barkovic and assistant-directed and accompanied by Terry Halco. Songs were performed with accompaniment including piano and violin as well as acapella with multiple songs featuring different soloists.
The Westford Chorus is an SATB chorus that “strives to present the widest possible spectrum of choral music to Westford and surrounding communities.” Such range was shown by their performance last week.
The music for the afternoon was diverse presenting family favorites like “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast, “Seize the Day” from Newsies, and “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, as well as classics like “Will There Really Be a Morning” by Craig Hella Johnson, “Sure on This Shining Night” by Morten Lauridsen, “Bile Them Cabbage Down,” a traditional American folk song, and “Hoopla” by Libby Larsen.
“Thank you all for coming today. It’s great to see a full house,” Barkovic said, “You can see how much variety there’s been in 42 years, from musical theater to pop to classical everything to hoedown. We captured it all.”
The show also featured the Westford Chorus’s subsets, a soprano-alto group and a tenor-bass group, smaller groups of the chorus that had extended rehearsals to perform “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” by Elton John and “What Baking Can Do” by Sara Bareilles.
The performance ended with Barkovic saying that the chorus may have to do another show in the near future.
“The painful part was whittling it down to this, so we may have to have another one of these,” Barkovic.
Performers and directors alike were upbeat and engaged in each and every piece performed. The performances left the crowd laughing, applauding and ending the afternoon with a standing ovation for the first and surprise ending.
