As winter break quickly approached, students throughout the district got into the holiday spirit by taking part in various activities. December 14, 3rd and 4th graders at John S. Clarke Elementary Center listened to the musical sounds of the high school percussion ensemble. Third graders watched the show starting at 9:30 with the fourth graders immediately following. Percussionists included sophomores Victoria Oswald and Pat Ryan and seniors Ryan Buchanan and Kaitlyn Pekarik. Mr. Stephen Horvath, a percussion director at the high school, leads the ensemble.

“I liked singing along to all of the songs, especially ‘Jingle Bells’ because it is one of my favorite Christmas songs,” 3rd grader Adrianna Bodnar said. “I even brought a Rudolph nose to wear during the show. All of the music got me really excited for Christmas, and I can’t wait to see what Santa brings me.”

The performance opened with some of the most famous Christmas carols, ranging from “Joy to the World” to “Deck the Halls.” The songs were performed with bells, chimes, a marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and a tympany. As the performance went on, the ensemble changed up their sound by playing songs from Mexico. Mr. Horvath explained how the sounds differ between our country’s music and Mexico’s, with the main difference being that Mexico’s music is produced by playing notes that are close together on the instrument.

“The coolest thing that I learned about during the show was that different cultures have unique and really different Christmas music compared to ours,” 4th grader Lauren Kelly said.

Mr. Horvath also briefly explained each instrument and contrasted the sounds produced by each between songs.