Holidays a busy time for Memorial School choir

CHRIS KELLY The students who make up the Eatontown Memorial School Choir have had a busy holiday season with appearances all over town.

EATONTOWN — They come to school early every morning to practice their singing before classes begin, and they return to John J. Collins’ music room a couple of afternoons after class each week to work on their songs some more.

They are the seventh- and eighth-graders in the Memorial School Choir and all their work is geared toward presenting polished performances before the many, diverse community groups they entertain.

Collins, who established a permanent choir when he came to the Memorial School 31 years ago, said he’s dealing with a talented group of youngsters who enjoy performing in front of the public.

"Some of them come to me with a wealth of performing experience in community theater or bands," he said. "But for some, it’s the first music group they have ever belonged to.

"By the time we get into performance mode," he added of the neophytes, "they’re pretty much stage ready."

The Memorial School Choir has a busy performance schedule throughout the school year, but is in particular demand during the Christmas season. They appeared before no fewer than nine groups over the holiday, including the borough Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at the municipal building, the Festival of Trees gala at the Sheraton Hotel, a luncheon of the Eatontown Industrial Park Association, a meeting of the Woman’s Community Club of Eatontown, at the Meadowbrook senior residence on Wyckoff Road, and the Gateway Care Center on Grant Avenue.

Collins said the choir is the longest performing group at the Festival of Trees, having appeared at all 12 that have been held at the Sheraton.

"They’re very talented," said Thomas Riccardi, general manager of the Sheraton Hotel, who has seen them in concert at the Festival of Trees every year for the five years he’s been at the hotel.

"John Collins is the conductor and he does a great job as well," Riccardi added. "We love them. We wouldn’t have the festival without them."

Peg Evert, president of the Woman’s Community Club of Eatontown, a federated club, said the choir performs for her group every year.

"They’re a fantastic group of kids," she declared. "They give you good entertainment, and their director, Mr. John Collins, is one of the most fantastic directors of music that I’ve seen in a long time. He keeps the kids hopping."

Anna Mayer, administrator/director of the Eatontown Industrial Park Association, goes back farther. She said the choir has probably been performing before her group for 18 or 20 years. She said members feel this starts the Christmas holiday season for them.

"It’s amazing because each year it’s made up of different seventh- and eighth-graders," she said. "Every year, because of John Collins, these students are well-behaved professionals. They sing the most wonderful songs and this year they added ‘God Bless America’ and the reaction was just tremendous. It was almost teary. They were just touched so much by it."

"They’re just great kids," she said.

Collins said both the Woman’s Club and the Eatontown Industrial Park Association have been generous in making donations to the choir, that have been used to buy sweatshirts for the students so they can have coordinated outfits. He said they have green sweatshirts for the holiday season, which have white silkscreened candles with sprigs of holly, and another sweatshirt for the rest of the year, which are worn with either black or khaki slacks.

The exception for a uniform appearance was the tree-lighting ceremony because it was held outdoors and the students needed to wear coats.

Asked what kind of music the members of the choir like to sing, Collins said that "strangely enough" they like music from the early 1960s.

"Popular with the choir year-in and year-out are ‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to’ and ‘Breaking up is hard to do,’ " he said. "And show tunes always are very popular with them. They enjoy singing ‘ Matchmaker’ from Fiddler on the Roof or ‘Castle on a Cloud’ from Les Mis."

As for the people they perform for, "they seem to enjoy it all," Collins said.

"I think what they like the best is that the kids are smiling and enthusiastic while they’re performing," he said.

Collins said the students put on at least 24 performances during the school year. As a rule, he said, they don’t do anything in July and August.

"The final performance of the year usually is eighth-grade graduation," he reported.

Competition to become a member of the choir, which is limited to 15 students, is keen.

"Auditions are pretty competitive," Collins said. "This year, for example, we had over 40 youngsters try out for seven openings. I had eight students left over from last year."

Collins explained he tries to keep the number of members at 15 because the music they sing is three-part music with soprano 1, soprano 2 and alto and he wants to keep those parts balanced.

Among the choir’s annual performances, Collins said, is the Monmouth County Teen Arts Festival held at Brookdale Community College, a statewide competition for youngsters who excel in music and art. He said the choir won a contest in 1988 and performed at the Arts Center for the Teen Talent Expo.

"That program unfortunately died when the Garden State Arts Center was contracted out to private management," he lamented.

The members of this year’s Memorial School Choir are Jessica Aumack, Rachelle Borja, Mila Rose Canulias, Christine Chan and Christine Cittadino.

Also included are: Lindsay Corcione, Brian Foley, Christina Garofalo, Alexis Goldberg and Sherie Killingback.

Other members are: Crystal Mencia, Katelyn Miller, Victoria Patterson, Alice Sowinski and Joshua Staudinger.

Also a member is piano player Mariya Nagornaya, who immigrated from the Ukraine two years ago and who accompanies the choir in practice and in starting their performances. She also is a member of the Eatontown Municipal Band, where she plays the glockenspiel.