Spanish Seminar Embraces Season of Giving by Hosting Benefit Concert

12/21/2018

“Abreme La Puerta” and other Spanish holiday songs rang throughout Masters Hall on Wednesday afternoon as Upper School students in Roberto Mercedes’ Spanish seminar held a benefit concert followed by a parranda navideña, a caroling tradition in the Hispanic world.

The students in Mercedes’ class had been studying the holidays and traditions of the Hispanic world, and decided to hold a holiday concert to culminate this area of study. “The class wanted to share the spirit of the holiday season in Spanish with the School,” said Mercedes. And, in an effort to incorporate the School’s year-long theme of advocacy, the students invited concert guests to make donations that would benefit two charities: Greenpeace and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

With guitars and maracas in hand, the students took the stage in the Claudia Boettcher Theatre and serenaded the audience with a variety of holiday tunes, such as “El Tamborilero” (“The Little Drummer Boy”) and “Noche De Paz” (“Silent Night”). Students, faculty and staff in the audience clapped along to the tunes and gave a standing ovation at the end of the performance.

The celebration didn’t end there, though. A parranda navideña that followed the concert brought the gift of song to classrooms and offices throughout the School. As the sound of singing and maracas faded away as the group traversed the hallways, the joy of their spirit and songs remained palpable among those they had visited.