Free concert is a valuable outing

BACKSTAGE PASS: More than 350 children, from preschool through high school, attend a free a capella concert Friday performed by Chapter 6, on stage for nearly an hour at the Gaia Hotel Amphitheater in Anderson River Park.

Area music educators and nearly 350 students - from preschoolers through high school - enjoyed a rare treat Friday morning with a free concert by Chapter 6, an a capella or voice band group, in Anderson River Park.

Transportation for all public school students was courtesy of the patrons and sponsors of the Shasta Community Concert Association, which usually hosts its student outreach concerts at the Redding Convention Center.

But a scheduling conflict left the concert association with no place to perform in Redding, so the recently refurbished Gaia Hotel Amphitheater in Anderson was chosen as an alternative.

From the group's high intensity opening number, a 1940s swing tune, clear through the question-and-answer session at the end, the youngsters were mostly engaged, listening and enjoying the vocal harmonies from the six-member, all-male singing group that formed at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., in 2000.

Lead singer Luke Andrew Menard, who in 2008 was one of 15 semi-finalists on "American Idol" as a soloist, also led the group through a rousing rendition of Queen's 1970s headbanger ballad "Bohemian Rhapsody" while bass vocalist John David Musick easily went into falsetto for the group's original tune, "Ode to Krispy Kreme."

Other members of the group include baritone Charles "Chuck" David Bosworth, tenor Nathan David Pufall and vocal percussionists/harmonizers Aaron Stonecipher and Jarrett Allen-Michaels Johnson. The group's musical arranger and sound technician is Mark Eckles Grizzard.

"It was really good. I liked the ("Krispy Kreme") donut song the best," said Mya Robison, 16, a junior and second alto in the choir at Anderson Union High School.

"It was awesome. I liked the (six minute medly) of the 'Wizard of Oz' the best," said David Briley, 7, a second-grader at Sycamore Elementary School in Redding.

Chapter 6 also performed Friday evening at the Redding Convention Center for subscribers to the Shasta Community Concert Association as the opening show of the association's 2009/2010 five concert season.

The group has performed more than 950 times in 43 states, Hong Kong, Canada and Africa. On Saturday, Chapter 6 was to travel to Montana.