By Price Zimmer ’14 | Art & Entertainment Editor

This is the time of year when classic jingles and memorable Christmas songs are played non-stop, and living up to these well-known tunes is quite the challenge. The Grosse Pointe South Choir’s Saturday night show, while not always perfect, was very successful at covering classic songs that people have grown up with, in some cases for generations.

A few of the first songs, such as “Cool Yule” and “Yule Be Rockin’” were a bit too quiet, but were fine enough to be entertaining. The performances were quite fun-loving and quite jovial, and if the choir singers were a little nervous or distracted, it did not show-which is impressive for a high school choir.

It was the duet by Hannah Ayrault and Isaac Piecuch that was the first real high of the show, with their rendition “Baby it’s Cold Outside.”  Not only hitting all the notes, but singing with great passion and gusto, Ayrault and Piecuch were excellent.

That was followed by a couple lively performances of “You’re A Mean One,” and “The Sleigh.” The song, “You’re A Mean One,” was especially entertaining because the choir actually had a “Grinch” steal a Christmas tree onstage. A solo of “Merry Christmas Darling,” was then performed by Jackie Chylinski, who was serviceable, but still was impressive.

It could also be argued that a few songs, namely “Star in the East”, “Santa Baby”, “This Christmas” a duet by Kristina and Athena Papas, and “Extraordinary Merry Christmas,” were the most well-received of the show.

Another great high was a solo of “Silent Night” by Lauren Dessinger. It was an excellent rendition of a classic Christmas song. The next song, “We Three Kings” was alright, but not nearly as energetic as a tap dancing number by the Santa Tappers. It was definitely the peak of the night in terms of energy.

This is not to say that a solo by Emma Aboukasm of “The Christmas Song” followed by “Joy to the World” and “O Holy Night” were lacking in quality, which was clearly not the case as all of the songs were of great quality. The final song which featured several members of the audience getting on stage was “Halleluiah Chorus”, and was a very satisfying way to end the evening.

Overall, a quality performance by all involved, the choir can be confident that it succeeded in delivering a well-rounded and impressive performance from top to bottom. It is a credit to Christopher Pratt, the choir director, to have the choir performing so well in (not even) a semester’s worth of time.