When you walk downstairs in RB during the day and enter the music wing, you’ll see myriads of students with various instruments, singing many songs, and generally making lots of pleasant noise. However, on Tuesday nights this April and early May, if you go into the choir room you’ll find a different singing group that doesn’t exactly roam the hallways between 8 and 3.

Choir Director Diane Marelli has decided to add an additional number to the program of the Spring Choir Concert this year: the song Bridge Over Troubled Water by Paul Simon, sung by a choir of, well, choir parents.
Yes, you heard me correctly. The parents of choir students were invited by Marelli to sing the song as part of the spring choir concert on May 6. Marelli reports that between 25 and 30 parents have been coming to practice consistently in preparation for the performance.

Marelli got the idea of asking parents to sing after years of talking to parents after student performances.

“They would say things like, ‘I wish I could be up there singing, I remember when I was in choir, I’ve never sung before in my life but it looks fun.’ I realized that parents were interested, and it was a good time to do it – after the musical – and so I decided to ask them,” said Marelli.

She also said that the song gave her inspiration. “It is a song with powerful lyrics, powerful music. It’s meaningful for the parents because the song is from their generation.”

Many more parents responded to the invitation than Marielli was expecting, and after hearing them and practicing with them she says that they will be a huge success.
Students, parents, faculty, and community members are invited to see the Spring Choir Concert on the evening of May 6, when the four RBHS choirs and the parent choir will be performing.