The John Burroughs High School Vocal Music Association presents “Pop Show 41: Eye to Eye” showcasing the VMA’s amazing tradition of excellence with singing, dancing, dazzling costumes and eye-catching sets from the nationally acclaimed, award-winning Powerhouse & Sound Sensations advanced competition choirs, as well as the intermediate Decibelles and Sound Waves competition choirs and perennial fan-favorite “Men At Work.” Evening shows are on Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th beginning at 7PM. A 2:00 PM matinee performance will take place on Saturday March 7th and Sunday, March 8th. Tickets are now available online at www.jbhsvma.com.
In addition to the VMA’s five competition choirs performing their highly anticipated 2020 competition sets, “Pop Show 41” will also feature a variety of small groups, duos and soloists performing music and choreography they have chosen themselves, as well as a special performance by the VMA’s Dance Ensemble. In total, “Pop Show 41” will feature over 200 students from the JBHS VMA, as well as the talents of select students from the Burroughs Instrumental Music Association and the JBHS Tech Crew.
This year marks the 41st anniversary of Pop Show! The Vocal Music Association was launched in the Fall of 1978, by Mary Rago, who at the time was the vocal music director of John Burroughs High School. The JBHS VMA was one of the nation’s very first competitive show choir programs. Ms Rago was succeeded as director in 2006 by her former student, Brendan Jennings, who is assisted by artistic director, Jen Oundjian (also former student); musical director, Dan Scoville; and a team of talented choreographers.
Along with Pop Show 41, the JBHS VMA has an incredibly busy Spring, competing in numerous regional competitions; traveling to New York city to compete in a national showchoir competition and hosting its own Music Showcase event on April 17th and 18th where over 60 choirs will compete over the course of the two-day event. The choirs’ 2020 season will finish on Thursday, May 14th with the presentation of its annual Spring Concert in the John Burroughs Auditorium.
The John Burroughs High School Vocal Music Association includes five competitive show choirs, involving over 200 student choir, tech and musical performers. The program’s advanced mixed choir, POWERHOUSE, has long been recognized as one of the nation’s finest show choirs. An inspiration for the television series “Glee,” POWERHOUSE was invited to perform on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010 as a representative of the modern high school show choir phenomenon. In recent years, POWERHOUSE has performed opposite the cast of “Glee,” Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Harry Connick, Jr., and Foreigner. Additionally, the group was featured in “Gleeful: The Real Show Choirs of America”, a British documentary as well as profiled on the “CBS Evening News.” The choir has performed at the famed Hollywood Bowl, and has traveled to a variety of cities around the U.S., as well as to China on two occasions to perform in the internationally televised Chinese New Year Parade and other prominent events.
For more information on the John Burroughs High School VMA Show Choirs, go to www.jbhsvma.org.
