Gala Gala Gala

10/1/16 The Gala was a landmark in the Performing Arts Department, and many Paly alumni were in attendance including Broadway actor Alex Nee. In the first half, the Madrigal Singers glided onto stage in their intricate 16th century-style costumes and impressed the audience with their performances of “Masters in this Hall”, “Matona Mia Cara”, and “MLK”. The elegant ladies of the Spectrum Singers waved Spanish fans to embellish their piece “El Vito”. And representatives from Paly’s groups collaborated as AcaPaly to get the crowd grooving to “Turn the Beat Around”. The dazzling second half featured a combined orchestra and festival choir piece, Vivaldi’s “Gloria”, which was as glorious as it sounds. The Festival choir silently moved into the audience for a magical performance of Eric Whitacre's “Cloudburst”, and showed of the PAC’s brand new Constellation sound system. The finale performance was a mesh of songs from our favorite musicals. The Viking Men’s Chorus charmed all of us with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, the Premier choir made its Paly debut with beautiful harmonies in pieces from “The Phantom of the Opera”, featuring festival choir soloists Kelsey Lu and Georgina Wu. The Spectrum Singers and Festival Choir let out their inner Idina Menzel in choral renditions of “For Good” and “Defying Gravity”. To top off an already fantastic Gala, the director of the animated “Lion King”, Rob Minkoff, lead a sing-along that culminated in every Gala performer singing “The Circle of Life”. We are so glad that all of our hard work paid off for this day. The PAC is an incredible facility, and we can’t wait to use it in the future!-Anisha Patwardhan ’17