The AHS Choral Department, under the direction of Ms. Carleen Dixon, includes four groups:
Concert Choir (grades 9-12) — Enrollment for credit. Performances include Fall, Winter and Spring Concerts at AHS, as well as (which is adjudicated) and the spring trip competition. (The city varies each year.)
Women's Ensemble (grades 10-12) — Enrollment for credit, selection is by audition. Includes a full range of choral music, classic and contemporary, in multiple languages, often sung a cappella. Performances in addition to those for Concert Choir include many local venues including nursing homes, special education centers, shopping malls, private parties and corporate functions and the Channel 21 Holiday Spotlight. The group has also performed at the Kennedy Center with the Choral Arts Society and the Royal Swedish Ballet. During the past two years, women from the choral department have participated as a treble choir in performances of Bernstein's Mass at George Mason University, Carmina Burana with the Masterworks Chorus and Orchestra and also with the Washington Chorus and the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as performing the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 with the Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center.
Men's Chorale (grades 9-12) selected by audition. The group meets after school two days per week for approximately 80 minutes per class, for 1 full credit. Men's Chorale performs a variety of music, ranging from classical to barbershop and choreographed popular music. The award-winning ensemble has performed throughout the Annandale community as well as at the Kennedy Center and other major venues in the Washington, DC area.
Annandale Singers (grades 10-12) — Enrollment for credit, selection by audition. Specializes in a cappella singing of madrigals, as well as a full range of classical and contemporary music. Performances in addition to those for Concert Choir and Women's Ensemble have included performances at the White House, Washington National Cathedral, the Virginia Renaissance Faire and most recently three Christmas concerts at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Chorus.
In 2002- 2003, the AHS Choral
Department was chosen to partner with the Washington Chorus for the
concert season through the Side by Side program. In addition, as part
of the ongoing exchange program with the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer Gymnasium
of Eppelheim, Germany, AHS choral students have given joint concerts
with the Gymnasium Choir both in Annandale and in Germany and have sung
in Germany, Austria and France.
