Thursday, January 16, 2025
The Rhythm of the Knight Show Choir put on their annual holiday spectacular ahead of the holiday season. There were two evening shows — Dec. 13 and 14 — and both nights brought out enthusiastic crowds, with people in the audience dancing and singing along.
The choir requires a lot of hard work from its student singers. They wore various eclectic costumes throughout the show. The Grinch even played a role in making it into a story.
“There’s no words to describe what it feels to be on stage performing your heart out in front of people, the smiles that you see on people’s faces when you hear a nice note, where you see that the kids are dancing,” Varsha Ramrookum, 11th grader, said. “And it’s just such an amazing and magical experience. There’s no words to explain how I feel.”
Varsha’s mother, Yasodra, said she is very proud of her daughter and loves watching the show. She even plans on continuing to go to their concerts after Varsha graduates and finishes with the choir.
“So even when she’s done and graduated, I think I would still come back to see the show because it’s so great,” Yasodra said.
Cadence Peace, another student singer, sees many benefits from being in the choir.
“It’s going on my college applications and they seem to love it,” Peace said. “We’ve done things with Barry Manilow. We’ve been to Carnegie Hall, stuff like that. So it’s definitely something that helps you career wise.
“But also it teaches you about time management,” she added, “and life skills that you need, (like) being committed.”
Parents have also expressed the many benefits they see in the choir for their children. Cynthia Bien-Aime-Eugene, mother of singer Hannah Eugene, sees more than just tangible benefits.
“It gives them personality, growth,” she said.
Some of the student singers have aspired to be in the choir for years before they entered high school.
“When I was in elementary school, third grade, the choir was performing with Barry Manilow at the Nassau Coliseum,” Celeste Calderon said. “So they picked me out to come sing with all the other little kids, and ever since then, I’ve been in love with the choir. I’ve found a way to get in, so I had a friend and she got me an audition and now I’m here.”
The student singers work very hard to put on their shows. They practiced for five to six hours after school every day in the week leading up to the show. They had other rehearsals before that in the auditorium or Choir Director Lynnette Carr-Hicks’s chorus room.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” Yasodra said. “The kids are here late every single day, on top of doing their school work and being part of other activities such as sports and stuff like that. They put in a lot of work and hard effort, but it definitely pays off. And you can see it in tonight’s performance.”
For some of the student singers, the experience of being in the choir has completely changed their lives.
“It brings me out of my shell,” Calderon said. “I was definitely more nervous at the beginning of my high school years. And now I’m not afraid to do basically anything.”
