PHS Choir performed this year’s holiday POPS! concert.
In collaboration with Broadway singer Andrea Ross and
the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, allowing audiences
to enjoy repertoire from various ensembles.

Since 2003, PHS Choir has been performing at the annual
POPS! concert with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra,
giving generations of choir students the opportunity to
perform with a professional orchestra. Previous vocalists
included Morgan James, Janet Dacal, and Laquita Mitchell,
as well as the New Jersey Tap Ensemble, a non-profit
professional tap dance group.

“[The concert was] so popular that it was sold out
with standing room only. So now they’ve added a second
performance in the last three years,” said Sarah Pelletier,
a choir teacher at PHS.

Assembled by Princeton Symphony Orchestra, this year’s
program deviates from their usual classical repertoire,
featuring lighter, longtime holiday favorites such as “Santa
Claus is Coming to Town.”

 “[The program] is a combination of holiday songs, festive
songs, mostly pop and jazz and traditional carols with
cool arrangements,” said PHS Choir director
Vincent Metallo.

In addition to classic holiday tunes, the
song selection featured iconic Christmas
soundtracks, such as “Believe” from “The Polar
Express” and “Somewhere in My Memory”
from “Home Alone”.

“I really like “Somewhere in My Memory,”
said Raima Srivastava ’25, a member of the
PHS Choir. “In the movie [there are] a bunch
of children singing, and it’s kind of like us. It
sounds really cute [and] beautiful, and I really like the way
the conductor conducts it.”

A tradition of the concert is for the audience to singalong at the end. Not only do the choir students get the opportunity to lead, the audience is also able to feel truly
engaged.

“I hope that the audience enjoys the music, and [that]
it’s an experience,” said Marcus Strum ’27, who’s a member
of PHS Choir.

The event joined the singers together in holiday spirit,
and provided learning experiences for the choir students.

“[It’s an] absolutely great experience for our kids to sing
with a professional orchestra. Most schools don’t ever. [It’s]
been really great [and it] teaches them a little bit more
about performance etiquette, what it’s like to collaborate
with professionals,” said Metallo.

The different interpretations of the music between the
choir and orchestra allowed them to collaborate, building
off of each other.

“It’s really cool to just kind of go off of the
orchestra because they do the pieces a little
differently than how we rehearse them in
choir,” said Srivastava. “Sometimes I watch the
orchestra perform and I’m so encapsulated by
how they perform that I just forget to actually
try when I sing, but they’re really good every
year that we perform with them.”

In coming together with Princeton
Symphony Orchestra and Andrea Ross, the performance
allowed for a blending of various vocal ranges and
instruments.

“We’ve worked really hard on it,” said Jenna Stucky ’25,
a member of PHS Choir. “We often rehearse [as just]
sopranos [and] altos. More recently, we’ve been coming
together … and it’s just super cool to see all those voices
coming together and [the] people in choir this year. So I
love hearing everyone’s voices together.”

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