A.A. Stagg High School is set to install a form of surround sound in its auditorium, but it will take 250 student musicians and singers to make it happen.
Spectrum, a musical showcase of the school’s musical programs, returns to Stagg Dec. 6 and 7.
The Palos Hills school’s various bands, choirs, ensembles, duets and soloists each will perform in a different location throughout the theater. Musicians will be stationed from stage to aisle to balcony — front to back, side to side, with no break between songs.
“The music flows. You never really know where the next performance will be,” said Mary Gaido, a gym teacher at Stagg who is responsible for bring the concept to the school. Pieces to be performed include traditional and modern songs for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve and winter.
Gaido played clarinet when she was a student at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, where she was part of the annual Crystal Concerts, performances similar in concept to Spectrum. The events stayed with her, both as a player and as an audience member who saw the shows when her younger siblings were at the school. She said those performances made her “appreciate the magic of it all.”
“It was a huge part of my life,” said Gaido, who began teaching at Stagg in 2009.
She told band director Bob Mecozzi and choir director Chris Betz about the Crystal Concerts and brought them to a performance in Naperville. They were convinced, and they put together the first Spectrum in 2012.
Betz recalled attending that performance at Neuqua Valley.
“We were in awe at the quality of the musicianship … and the production itself,” Betz said.
The two music directors worked with students to select the music, and Gaido oversees the logistics of getting all the ensembles and soloists in the right spot. In addition to the bands and choirs at the school — from the concert band to the madrigals — any student may audition to perform solo or in a duet.
The individual songs represent a variety of musical styles, emotions and cultures. “Winter Wonderland,” and “O Holy Night,” will be mixed with “A la Nanita Nana” (a Spanish-language lullaby to the infant Jesus), “Haneirot Halalu (These Holy Lights),” “Once Upon a December,” from the movie “Anastasia,” “New Year’s Day,” by Pentatonix, and even a song that was originally written for a video game. The evening culminates with all 250 students performing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus as interpreted by Quincy Jones.
Betz said he considers the free performances a gift to the community, and judging by the crowds it has attracted, the performances are a gift that’s well-received. Over the past five years audiences have grown and the performances last year filled the theater to capacity.
Spectrum concerts are at 7 p.m. Dec. 6 and at 6 and 8:15 p.m. Dec. 7 in the Performing Arts Center of Stagg High School, 8015 W. 111th St., Palos Hills. Admission to the performances is free; doors open 20 minutes before they begin.
Paige Fumo Fox is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Stagg High School Spectrum Concerts
Free admission
7 p.m. Dec. 6
6 and 7 p.m. Dec. 7
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Performing Arts Center at Stagg High School, 8015 W. 111th St., Palos Hills
Information: 708-974-7400, https://stagg.d230.org/