On Saturday, June 5, the Annandale Choral Department had their annual Spring Recital at Cornerstone Church. It is known to be the last concert of the year where most of the songs that the Choral Department has worked on through out the year are performed.

The three groups performed on Saturday night, including Annandale Singers, Women’s Ensemble, and Men’s Chorale.

They sang more then forty songs in total in what seemed to be an all around flawless performance.

“I think we all did really well, I can’t think of a way we could improve,” sophomore Christina Miller said.

The song selection included everything from ‘Jingle Bells’ to ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and the performers even had choreography to go along with some of the songs.

“‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ was my favorite song because it was fun to learn and perform. It was really funny to watch the tenor twos learn their dance moves,” freshman Stephen Oakes said.

This year the concert wasn’t only the last one for the seniors, but the last for the choral director, Carleen Dixon, who has been working at Annandale High School for 16 years.

To honor the many years that Dixon has spent at AHS some Annandale chorus alumni came to the recital and were able to join the chorus in singing the last five songs of the night.

Both Alumni Ayobamidele Odejimi, 2002 graduate, and Derick Elmore, 2008 graduate, gave a fantastic performance in their solos for the song ‘Go the Distance’.

Many of Dixon’s student are going to miss her next year including freshman Laura Hackfeld who said, “She’s just really sweet and she genuinely cares for her students.”

Students are looking forward to next year, but are apprehensive about what the new choral director will be like.

“I hope that it will be just the same, but with a new director you never know,” Miller said.

Dixon’s years of dedication and service to the Annandale Choral Department will not easily be forgotten.

“I’m going to miss everything about Ms. Dixon. She was a great teacher,” Oakes said.