The 50th Anniversary Concert

The 50th Anniversary of the Saddle Brook High School Choir with 80-90 alumni and Choraleers.

   September, I blogged about the rehearsal I went to for a very special event. I am an alumnus, as most of my family are, of the Saddle Brook High School Choir. The official choir of the high school was established in 1964 under the direction of Mr. Chuck Broadhurst with eight or nine kids in the choir. A couple years later he grew the choir to eighty or ninety people. My mother's freshman year there were over 100 people in the choir. I think the record was 250 students at one time. The year 2014 marked the 50th year anniversary of its true establishment.

   Mr. Broadhurst had even split the choir into the Girls' Glee Club and Boys' Glee Club, doing all female and all male pieces of music along with the full choir, and in 1966 a select choir known as the Choraleers. After 30 years he retired and an alumnus of 1975, Cindy Verost, became the director after him, and God bless her for continuing the work and traditions he had done, along with adding her own strengths and flavor to the program and the choir. I also believe there are some challenges and struggles she would have had to come across that Mr. Broadhurst never had to deal with back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that she may have had to endure. I would say she gets a great deal of credit for keeping the program successful for the school and to continue.

   This 50th anniversary was a celebration of 50 years of the program and a combination of alumni from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and new millennium alumni were all in attendance. The repertoire was a combination of songs that were traditional from Mr. Broadhurst, and some that were done by Cindy Verost. The first two pieces were Choraleer pieces, one known as Psallite. Many generations of Choraleers have done that piece. Another song Mr. Broadhurst did every year with the Choir as a processional piece at the holiday concerts was Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence which is a SBHS Choir classic!

    Another popular piece Mr. Broadhurst did that was requested by the Alumni was the Jazz Gloria. A few pieces Mrs. Verost has done with the choir that we did were How Can I Keep From Singing My Song and I Believe which are great pieces of music. Mrs. Verost always did a Mozart piece with the choir, at least to my recollection. She always made sure the choir was not just singing but LEARNING. She made sure we understood a capella and what a fugue was, solfege, and incorporated it into the music selection for the concerts. Doing Mozart pieces like Ave Verum Corpus, Lacromosa, and Alleluia were no exceptions. Her choice of Mozart for the anniversary concert we did was Dire Ires which was your classic Mozart, figuring out your Latin! LOL! Toward the end we also did a song Let Everything Hath Breath which became a quick favorite for everyone as well. I guess you can call it a spiritual, which she was also infamously known for doing.

   There were two small rehearsals with a group of local alumni that got together before this day, once in September and once in October. This was to have a few people somewhat familiar with some of the music to make it easier for the day the entire choir met to learn the music. The bulk of putting this concert together was in a single day. Saturday, November 29, 2014 at 8:30am, the alumni met in the Charles Broadhurst Memorial Auditorium. After meet and greet and coffee, Mrs. Verost led us in a group warmup and then we separated into different rooms for sectional rehearsals. Mrs. Verost took the tenors and it really did bring me back to old times learning with her. Being in the choir and Choraleers really did me a lot of good at that time of my life.

After sectional rehearsals we came together again in the auditorium and rehearsed as a group together. Then we split in the cafeteria for a lunch break before getting on the stage to do a full run through of the program. We then left after about 5 hours of rehearsal before returning for the concert which began at 7:30pm. There were a lot of additional alumni, our friends and families, faculty members old and new, who were all in attendance.
     

Mrs. Verost worked with the tenors for sectional rehearsal. Brought me back to some good memories. 

Alumni rehearsing on the risers like they all once did at Saddle Brook high. 

Pep talk in the Choir Room before the concert. Each one of these alumni sang in this room with either
Cindy Verost or Chuck Broadhurst. 

Traditionally for 50 years, an alumni tradition were to sing these three songs at the end of the holiday concerts but we only did one of the songs, and ended with the Hallelujah Chorus. I was not happy about this decision and made it well known, quite relentlessly I might add. It was felt that there wasn't enough time to do them. In my opinion, they should have been the easiest since just about every alumni knows the pieces already and wouldn't have added much time. Most alumni believed so to. It was wrong not to do all three pieces. But I was the only one to annoyingly say anything to make the change, and there is power in numbers. But I made sure I was heard.

It was a beautifully run concert. Mrs. Verost did a fantastic job as well as her two managers (both whom I went to school with) Catherine Blankenhorn '05 and Autumn D'Espesito '10, who are equally given great credit for helping put this together. And Paul Weiner who accompanied the rehearsals and the entire concert. A fantastic job.

I think one of the most touching moments was the second song that we sang which Mrs. Verost had paid tribute to Mr. Broadhurst with. There is no way you can do a 50th anniversary concert and not sing Mr. Broadhurst's favorite song Brother James Air. I grew up listening and knowing this song. As we sang it on the stage in rehearsal I turned to the soprano section to look for my mother. I could see the tears in her eyes, and she actually had to step outside for a moment. I knew why. The last time she sang this song was at Mr. Broadhurst's funeral. The greatest tribute I had ever seen was Mr. Broadhurst's alumni students gather in front of his casket and sing this song as their farewell tribute. I'll never forget that for as long as I live. He would have absolutely loved to have seen this. 

Not many people have the opportunity to be a part of something in a school system with such tradition, quality, and history. The legacy the Saddle Brook High School choral department leaves is truly a remarkable one. I don't know too many school systems that can get 50 years worth of about a hundred alumni to do a concert like this. Cindy Verost has done a great job with the concert and with the concert in general. Thank you to Catherine and Autumn for all their efforts, thank you to Paul Weiner for his help and accompaniment. Thank you Mrs. Verost for putting this all together. And thank you to all the alumni for a wonderful time.  

On Thursday December 18 at Saddle Brook High School will be the 2014 Holiday concert. I believe all three alumni pieces will be done then, HAHA. Below is also a video of the concert put together by Enjoy! (BOWS)

"There are few things as we walk on this here earth that we know we were meant to do. Teaching ya'll has brought me great joy. It took a lot of time, but it was all well worth it. I love ya all."
-Mr. Broadhurst upon retiring in 1994

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6QscmIdca0&feature=youtu.be

Yours in service,

MASTER TRENTO