High School Choirs Perform in Fall Festival

The 40th Annual Fall High School Choral Festival was held in the Old Administration Building Auditorium on Nov. 1 and 2.  

The two-day festival consisted of 19 choirs from 15 different high schools throughout the Central Valley.

Each choir had the opportunity to perform songs they have been working on over the past few months.

Admission to this event was free for performing high school students, their families and FCC students as well.

Cristian Grases, an award-winning conductor and composer and professor of music at the University of Southern California, was the clinician during the event.

Grases’ job was to critique each choir after their performance and help them in areas he felt they needed.

Grases said that when choirs have an opportunity to receive advice from the clinician, they get a whole new perspective on their process.

He also added that clinicians have a fresh take on the songs that choirs have been working on for many weeks. So they get fresh ideas to take back to their rehearsals and further develop and mature their renditions.

“I am looking for what the choirs are doing really well and building from that,” said Grases. “[I’m] offering an opportunity for conductors and singers to expand their vision of the repertoire they are working on in the hopes they can apply these ideas to the rest of their program.”

The Fall Festival is one of many festivals held every school year for high school choirs from the Fresno area during which they perform for one another and before a panel of judges.

For further questions regarding choral events at FCC, contact Julie Dana, Director of Choral Activities and Voice.