Candlelight Is Back!

Christi Malaterra, Paw Print Reporter|December 22, 2021

Music Department

Chamber Singers

Candlelight is a very popular performance done every year since the 1930’s. Mr. Rivera told us that “ Candlelight is the longest running candlelight service running in the north east” The purpose of candlelight is to celebrate the holiday season at Norwalk high. Mr. Oliveri said  “I mean the purpose of Candlelight is to share what we do in class with the community and make the community feel upbeat about the holidays”  The different choir ensembles that participated in candlelight are Honors Principle Orchestra, Honors Wind Symphony, Advance Choir, Beginning Choir,  Treble Ensemble and Chambers. Mr. Rivera’s purpose of candlelight is  “Candlelight is the way we celebrate the holiday season at Norwalk High. It’s kinda our musical gift we give to the community every year.”  With COVID still being a big thing, candlelight had to be conducted in a completely different way because of all the restrictions. Performers had to be 6 feet apart, they couldn’t do the normal opening skits, and they had to break up the performances. Mr.Oliveri told us “ Orchestra and band can’t perform together”. Another huge change they had to make was they had to cut the audience number by a huge amount. Usually, there would be over 1,000 people per night, but  now they limited it to only 275 per night. Even though there were a lot of changes made and it’s not the same as most years, everyone is still very happy that there was still even a candlelight. A lot of students have been asking why there is not a school performance. We were able to get the answer to that. Mr. Rivera told us “ I think it has to do with not being able to fit everyone in the auditorium at all times. We would have to do like 8 assemblies and logistically, that would just be impossible”  Even though candlelight was not the same as most years, it was still an amazing production showing off the talents of our many musicians.