Chorale concert marks holiday with songs

A stunning recent event for ARHS’s Chorale–a mixed-gender singing group containing tenors, basses, sopranos, and altos–was a pre-Thanksgiving concert at Wesley United Methodist Church on Tuesday, November 26. The concert was a combination of all the pieces Chorale learned so far along with some pieces combined with the ARHS Jazz band. 

 Senior Caroline Garman had a solo in one of the pieces, her first Chorale solo ever, to the song “Sing My Child.” After the event, she spoke about how much being in this group has meant to her and other students. Garman noted that Chorale is open to all singers grades 10-12, with an audition. She joined in her tenth-grade year, and now she is co-president along with Logan Blount who also joined as a sophomore.  

Garman said she hopes more people will think about auditions. “We need more people for next year,” she said. But more than that, she noted, it’s because one of her favorite things about Chorale is the community. 

“For a student singer, Chorale gives you the chance to connect with and get to know other people with similar interests to your own,” she said. “It’s so cool to make music together and be a part of a community, especially a community that is all interested in making music. You can’t have a singing group without everyone wanting to sing.”

The idea of having to audition for chorale tends to scare people away but students agree that ARHS Music Director Todd Fruth is one of the kindest, most understanding people you’ll meet with a real ear for music.

Many students have expressed how they love it when their teachers are passionate about what they teach and Fruth definitely is. He said, “I love being able to watch the growth of students over four years. I love teaching high school specifically because we can make really cool art together and talk about it. And singing in particular because this inherently vulnerable process often forges deep connections.” The amount of care Fruth places into his work allows his students to have just as much fun making music as him, if not more. 

Fruth teaches three choral ensembles: Chorale, Hurricane Singers, and Concert Choir. “I also teach music production classes, music theory, and one section of Unified Performing Arts,” he said.

Though he grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and went to high school there, he attended Amherst College undergrad, where he majored in Psychology and Music. “I went to Indiana University for grad school where I got my Masters in Music Education,” he said, before returning to Amherst to work.

“I worked for a year at Amherst College after graduating, directing choirs and leading ear training sessions for music theory classes,” he said. He also taught for four years at Falmouth High School on Cape Cod.

As much as Fruth loves his job he explains that it has had its struggles. “The block schedule has been very frustrating. It has meant that I don’t regularly see my choral ensembles all year long,” he said.

Not being able to see his students all year round makes concerts and learning songs more difficult because of students’ needing to utilize flex blocks for other classes or clubs.

In addition to his job at ARHS, Fruth directs an acapella group called the Green Street Brew (featuring technology teacher Lee Larcheveque and math teacher Geoff Friedman) and a chamber choir called Novi Cantori.

Fruth said he loves how the students of ARHS are so curious, thoughtful, and passionate. “I love my colleagues, too,” he said. “Not only are they genuinely fascinating and amazing people in their own right, but I’m fortunate to be aligned with them philosophically on pedagogical issues.”

When not working with students or connecting with colleagues, Fruth stays very busy with hiking. He even hopes to “climb the high point of all fifty states.”