Jesus wasn’t expecting a stunning concert from St. Robert School for his birthday.

On December 17, 2015, St. Robert students put on a musical program to celebrate Jesus’ birth. All students involved in music at the school put on a two and a half hour show in the St. Robert church to commemorate Christmas. Although it was a lengthy performance, the children played and sang some oldies but goodies for the audience.

One of the big contributors to St. Robert concerts is their music teachers: Mrs. Schumann, Mrs. Niesman, Mr. Perez, and Mrs. Janisch. All of the music teachers spend a lot of their time coordinating and planning music programs for St. Robert parents and students.

“It takes a lot of time…,” says Mrs. Janisch. In addition to planning the concert as a whole, the teachers have to help the individual groups learn numerous pieces.

This “takes quite a bit more planning…,” says Janisch.

More stress and planning will be added each year depending on how many students the teachers are in charge of orchestrating, which can be up to forty or even eighty students. Like the teachers, the students performing have to put a lot of effort to have a successful performance.

The performers also play a big role in show itself. While students learn a lot of music to get prepared, they have less stress on their plates than the teachers do. For performances, students usually learn an average of three songs with the help of their amazing teachers. No matter how amazing a teacher may be, the quality of the song all depends on the students’ effort.

“Some people get a little lazy sometime…” said seventh grader Fiona, a current choir member. Even though some members of the choir don’t put in the full effort, there are still benefits that come from performing.

Choir “kind of helps me to progress and learn how other people sing as well as myself…,” Fiona commented. The most important part of performance preparation is how the concert turns out in the end.

After lots of time to prepare and evolve this Christmas concert many audience members had different opinions about the results. Some people from the audience found the choir’s harmony pleasing and well-done, but others found some things they lacked.

“I would have changed the transitions,” says Jaden, a music composition student. The choir may have had a few things they could work on, but overall a majority of the audience though their performance was great.

“It was really impressive… and the older kids [over-achieved],” says Jaden.

There are many ways to make Christmas special. One way would be a concert filled with holiday spirit and joyful songs. If one were to put on a Christmas performance, they should make sure they have all the key layers to the performance. Those layers would include performers, planners, and holiday themed songs. If all those things were present, Christmas this year was very jolly.