Deerfield Musicians Create Frozen Wonderland

On Friday, December 13, the Deerfield Academy Music Program performed The Winter Concert.

The concert’s goal was to provide joy for the whole community during the winter. The concert featured a large collaboration between the orchestra and chorus. Choral Director Michael Pfitzer cited the biggest challenge to the concert as “fitting everyone on stage.” He noted that this was a good problem to have because it indicated that “all programs are growing and the stage is getting too small.” The small stage in the Elizabeth Wachsman Concert Hall is conducive to the atmosphere of collaboration as Dr. Pfitzer noted that “even though you’re crammed in, everybody was really happy to participate together.”

Additionally, the two programs did not have much time to practice together because of limited rehearsal time. Dr. Pfitzer said the orchestra and chorus only held “three [joint] rehearsals together, where chorus would come down for the second half, so in total it was about two and a half hours [of rehearsal] for an eight minute piece.” However, staff mainly used these two and a half hours for troubleshooting tech problems and spacing.

Deerfield singers performed ‘Carol of the Bells’, a traditional Christmas carol by Ukrainian Composer Mykola Leontovych. Audience member Julia Horobets ’26 said about the piece, “It was a pleasure to hear Deerfield musicians perform a song that is so impactful to me because it was written by a composer from my home country.”

To present a concert which achieved Dr. Pfitzer’s goal of “engaging our community in things that are fun and enjoyable,” the music program decided to continue the Frozen theme from last year.

The music came from a Frozen 2 medley found online. Dr. Pfitzer explained the challenge of finding a medley “which is the right level for everyone.” Additionally, the music program decided to “add the ‘Lost in the Woods’ piece because it wasn’t in the medley but [it] was something [that the] musicians wanted to perform.”

Jessica Wu ’27 particularly enjoyed the medley and the theatrical introduction to the piece. She said, “It was really interesting, especially when they had the Elsa scene; all the kids were laughing. During the medley, lots of the faculty kids were singing along, which I thought was really fun.”

In conclusion, said what he enjoyed the most about the Winter Concert is how “it isn’t just for musicians…but something accessible and fun, especially during the winter.”