Tag Archives: St Patrick Regional Secondary
My High School Graduation
Ok, so it wasn’t MY high school graduation… but I was there.
On June 13th, just 3 days after landing in Canada, my youngest sister (Lisa) had her high school graduation ceremony, which was great. She sang in the choir, including a terrific solo, and she won an award as top English student and top AV student. Plus there were TV crews there because a former student who had to quit school in WWII to earn money for his family was getting an honourary diploma. Here are a few photos from the event:
During her solo:
Receiving her diploma (actually the cover is empty, they get their diplomas in the mail in the summertime hehe)
English award:
AV award co-winners:
With the parents:
With Tony Araujo, the choir director:
4/5 siblings with Mrs Nannery, our former English and English Lit teacher, who is also currently a Vice-Principal. Check out my ridiculous ‘stache:
Choir concert at the Chan Centre
On Thursday, May 17th I had the good fortune of being able to attend the annual St Patrick Regional Secondary School “Spirit Alive” concert at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, a terrific venue. Many years ago when I was still in high school, I was lucky enough to sing on that stage with the St Patrick Senior Concert Choir several times. In two days, I’ll be on that same stage accepting my Bachelor’s degree from UBC.
I’ve been to all but one of the St Patrick concerts at the Chan since I was in the choir back in high school. The one time I missed, in 2005, I was in New Zealand. Hopefully I will again one day manage to attend, but not likely for several years now that I’m off overseas again, indefinitely.
This year was, in my opinion, probably the best choir concert I’ve yet attended. At the very beginning the doors all around the concert hall opened quietly and young men in tuxedos and women in green dresses silently entered all around us. They stood behind us, they stood in the aisles, they stood above and below (there are 3 levels of seating in the concert hall), and with one single and very brave student on the stage directing them, they began to sing.
After a really well-performed opening song, the famous choir director (who was also my teacher for English 11), Tony Araujo, took the stage to direct the singers who had infiltrated the seating areas.
I won’t spend a long time describing with verbose adjectives and adverbs all the great talent that was displayed in the concert, but I’ll post a few of the better photos I shot that night from the very top balcony, only a couple of metres from the back of the entire hall. The great thing about the Chan Centre is that it was built so that you can hear virtually the same sound no matter where you sit, meaning we got a great view and a great listening experience.
St Patrick Senior Concert Choir (not auditioned)
Spirit Alive Men’s Chorale (an independent community choir, which happens to be all St Patrick alumni)
St Patrick Chamber Choir (auditioned)
Close-up of my baby sis, she’s a great singer :-)
St Patrick Senior Concert Choir with members of the orchestra, led by the concertmaster of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.
Soloist, John Tarlit, really talented and with great stage presence. Imagine performing a solo to a packed house, surrounded by a 90 person choir and a 22 person orchestra! Talk about pressure!
Posted in Canada, North America, Nostalgia
Also tagged Spirit Alive Men's Chorale, Tony Araujo, Vancouver
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♪ Siiiiiiiinging in the Chan ♫
Last week on the 3rd, I went to the Chan Centre at UBC to see the St Pat’s choir concert. It was AMAZING (as usual) and lots of fun. I sat with Joy (http://givemeanaudience.blogspot.com/) and we took some photos on her camera, so a big thanks to her, otherwise there’d be no pics up here.
Tony de Araujo, the choir director and teacher at St Pats, pulled off a great show and probably hadn’t slept in days. Sometimes I worry that he puts so much energy and enthusiasm into the choir, but it sure gets results.
Me sittin in the stands, but I kinda went crazy in Photoshop…
The Senior Concert Choir (non-auditioned, grades 10-12) was really good, and they sang some excellent stuff:
Then the Corpus Christi College Chamber Choir (auditioned adult choir) took a turn for a few songs. Several friends, and my Mom, are in the CCCCC so that was cool too. Tony is the director for this choir as well:
The St Pats Chamber Choir (auditioned, grades 9-12) also performed a number of songs which were really breathtaking. My baby sister Lisa is in this choir, and they placed 2nd at the Festival of Gold in San Francisco this year. The Festival of Gold is a US National Invitational event, and as usual, St Pats was the only Canadian choir there. This song is called “The Argument” and as you can see, it involves a fair bit of body movement and walking around – all extremely well choreographed and carried out with precision.
After the intermission, all three choirs joined together with some members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the second half of the concert. The various instruments worked reeeally well with the music and the Chan is such a great room for acoustics that it was a real treat to listen to.
Afterwards, I grabbed a few old high school friends of mine and we headed to Rugby’s, a restaurant/bar on Broadway. We chilled there for a while, then a few of us went to Denny’s for late night munchies.
Liz and Nate:
Me and Cathy:
Alastair and Joy
Altogether it was a great night, and still worth it even though I had to wake up after 4 hrs of sleep to go to work the next morning at the airport.
Return of the Sis
Lisa came back a few hours ago from her choir trip, her first trip outside Canada. She had a blast, and I’m so happy she got the chance to go this year. She’s only in grade 9, so she wouldn’t qualify to be part of the Concert Choir at St Pat’s, but she auditioned successfully to join the Chamber Choir, which usually only allows grade 10+ but makes a few rare exceptions sometimes.
They were at the Festival of Gold, a US national choral competition, in San Francisco and apparently both choirs were amazing. I believe it – I remember when I went to Utah with the choir for the same festival (there are multiple locations) and the amount of passion we had in our singing, because of our director’s amazing ability to energize people like that. Apparently he pulled it off again, bringing most of the choir to tears with a story right before their adjudicated performance. And of course a choir sings best with that kind of emotional power.
The Chamber Choir placed 2nd and the Concert Choir placed 8th. Those are amazing feats, and go to show that the St Pats choral program is just as good, if not better, than it was when I had my 16th birthday in Utah with the Concert Choir.
In addition to stories and a big smile, Lisa also brought home a present for me. It’s very special and so I decided to show it on here. It was hand-painted by a guy who specializes in this type of painting, and if you look carefully you can see all sorts of birds, fish, sunset, waterfalls, etc. I love it.
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