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Hart High School Show Choir Holds Inaugural Alumni Show

The Hart High School show choir held the program’s first ever alumni show last Saturday, bringing together both former and current students for a single weekend show.


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The show choir at John Burroughs High School has been holding an alumni show for years now, and it was time for Hart High School to finally have one of their own, according to Hart Choreographers Gerald Espinoza, Linda Davis, Amanda Richardson and former Choir Director Gail Hart.

“Gerald, Gail and myself have talked about putting an alumni show together for a few years actually,” said Davis. “We wanted to invite people back to share the stage together and relive our favorite show choir moments.”

Deciding to move forward with their plans to create a show that featured past performers was a desire for the program, but also helped mark the end of an era for Hart Show Choir, according to event officials.

“Earlier this year Gail announced her retirement, so we knew it would be now or never,” Davis said.

After setting up a Facebook group, sending out the invites and locking down the acts and performers slated to return to the Hart High School stage, Davis said that they had 34 alumni in total.

With performers dating as far back as the Class of 2002 — some having moved on to performing professionally — the event organizers had to move fast in order to get the alumni group ready to perform once again.

“We had two weeks to rehearse the show,” said Davis. “All three group numbers were learned and rehearsed in about two rehearsals, and solo acts each had one or two rehearsals max.”

One of the special aspects of the alumni show, according to Davis, is that not only do the alumni get to take time off from their professional lives, but Hart High School students get to perform alongside some of those that they grew up watching and striving to emulate one day.

“It was so cool to have our current choir students participate in the show,” said Davis, an alumni herself. “The alumni were so impressed with how professional and talented they were, and how fast they picked up choreography. They helped make the show look polished and we couldn’t have done it without them.”

Bringing together both amateurs and professionals, the show consisted of 13 acts that ranged from show tunes, to choir classics, to special performances by professionals.

Intermixed between the acts was former Choir Director Gail Hart, acting — for the last time — as the master of ceremonies for a Hart High Show Choir concert.

“It’s crazy that we hadn’t put on alumni show ever in Gail’s 20 years of teaching (at Hart), but I’m so glad that we were able to do it as her final show,” said Davis. “What Gail created with this program will stay in everyone’s hearts for the rest of our lives.”

Hart said after the show that the concert was not meant to be a commemoration of her retirement, but many performers made a point to mention how the retiring choir director had an impact on their lives.

“They really enjoyed being with one another again and putting their real lives on the back burner while re-creating the feelings they had in show choir in high school,” said Hart. “For me, personally, I was touched by a lot of their personal remarks to me about what the high school experience meant to them.”

The show concluded with a final group performance, and those in attendance were invited to an after-show reception held in the auditorium lobby.

All proceeds for the show went to support the Hart High School Show Choir program.

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Hart High School Show Choir Holds Inaugural Alumni Show

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About Caleb Lunetta

Caleb has been a Santa Clarita resident for most of his life. After attending Hart High School, Caleb went on to study political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara along with College of the Canyons.