It’s always busy at FSSA. From the beginning of the school year to the very end, every studio is always involved in a mass amount of significant events that take place all around the city and preparing for events that take place right in the Tony Bennett Concert Hall. The vocal studio has a handful of both inside and outside performances scheduled this year.The R.I.P Cabaret is just one of the many events that vocal majors do to start the year off organized by Ms. Best. While putting final touches on R.I.P Cabaret posters she says, “I really like this theme because there is always such a wide variety, anything goes, you know so its really fun to see what people come up with.”

FSSA performance sometimes take a lot of preparation. For instance, it’s only the middle of October and the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts Concert Choir is already preparing for their annual performance at Carnegie Hall, scheduled to take place in March 2014, in which they will perform repertoire by Duke Ellington. Ms. Best, Vocal Department director, says this year the music is not as difficult as last year’s so it lightens the load and gives the class a chance to focus on other things.

With all the different choirs that the vocal department has, they are always preparing to perform at separate events as well as collaborate with each other. An example would be the annual Vocal Concert in which all of the choirs and ensembles come together to create a performance that really captures the essence of what the vocal studio is all about.

There will also be some collaboration with the vocal studio and FSSA’s instrumental studio, which includes several different ensembles as well as the Symphonic Orchestra. They will perform at events such as the annual Winter Concert in December and the Orchestral and Vocal Concert in April. The choirs and ensembles scheduled to perform in upcoming events and gigs around the city are choirs such as Great American Songbook and Concert Choir and ensembles such as Chamber Singers and Opera. These choirs and ensembles plan to perform at famous locations in New York like Hunter College, the Barkley Hotel, the MetLife Building at Grand Central Station, and Carnegie Hall.

Music Theatre which consists of students in the drama, vocal, and dance studios also known as “triple threat students” are preparing for this year’s school production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Excited about the production of this musical Ms. Best explains an excerpt of the storyline stating: “This is a story about a boy who was orphaned on skid row and was taken in by a man who owned a flower shop. It was a very poor and destitute flower shop and no one would come in and buy flowers. The orphan who’s name is C’ Moore later found and bought a Venus fly trap kind of plant, and he noticed that is was not doing very well because it would not grow until he found out that the best way to feed it was with blood.”

What happens next? You can find out at the production of Little Shop of Horrors on March 13,14, and 15th.

by Samantha Clay ’14

Images: Alexander Gross ’14