Antioch Community High School’s annual Holiday Concert featuring the music department was stuffed full of Christmas trees coated in lights, sweet holiday cookies and supporting friends and family. The concert, directed by Director of Choirs Trey Hickey, Director of Orchestral Activities Michael Riggs and Director of Band and Accompanist Jonathan Untch, left guests in the auditorium feeling holiday joy.

The concert kicked off with the Madrigals singing classic holiday songs such as “Joy to the World,” “The First Noel” and “White Christmas.” It then moved to other music groups, such as Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, performing “Deck the Halls,” “Carol of the Bells” and more. The Percussion Ensemble had their time to shine with the song, “Silent Samba” that was conducted by each other as a team, rather than having one of the directors conduct it for them.

The Men of the Choirs added their own twist to the classic, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by replacing the green, small hearted grinch with their Orchestra Director, Mr.Riggs, naming the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr.Riggs.” Riggs dragged out his throne and sat in front of the audience as the talented group of men dedicated the song to him as a playful joke.

The student directed club HarMENy was a crowd pleaser with their take of “12 Days of Christmas” and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” from the popular Disney movie, “Frozen.” The Combined Choirs filled the stage and sang “Hine Ma Tov” with senior Morgan Yankee playing the clarinet. Sophomore Booker Grass then portrayed Little Drummer Boy as the Combined Choir sang in what sounded like perfect harmony.

The Advanced Wind Ensemble left the crowd in awe as they performed the song, “The Eighth Candle.”

“I think the performance went really well. The first performance wasn’t quite as good as I wanted it to be, but the second performance was amazing. After we played ‘The Eighth Candle’ you could hear the whole audience go silent and then erupt in applause. There was even one woman in the front who everyone heard say ‘wow.’ It was really great,” senior Nickie Hoffmann said.

As the concert drew to a close, the Combined Choirs formed around the audience in a final Christmas Festival that included the audience singing along with the carols leaving the audience in the Christmas spirt.