MEET THE DIRECTORS
When PJ Heckman was four years old he attended his first choir rehearsal. At the end of the practice he shouted, “It’s over already? I never want this to end!” And for the last several decades he made sure that the singing didn’t stop.
PJ has sought out many musical and non-musical opportunities. He sang a high C while being thrown several feet into the air. Had three children. Wrote the lyrics for a Rock concept album. Joined the amazing teaching staff at Pond Road Middle School in 2015. Performed in a musical revue in the basement of a Barnes & Nobles in Rio de Janeiro. Dreamed, built, opened and closed a performing arts studio. Got married. Performed a solo in 6th grade where he was booed off stage by his peers (intentionally). Attended Westminster Choir College for both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music Education. Though not in that order.
PJ is thankful that choir rehearsal never ended and is honored to teach the students of Pond Road Middle School. He is incredibly proud of the choristers you will see on stage today - and you should be too.
Adrianna Barnett is a current senior at Westminster Choir College, and has had a blast student teaching at Robbinsville High-school, and Pond Road Middle School. She will complete her Bachelor of Music, in Music Education, in the Spring, and go on to complete her Master of Music Education in the Spring of 2025. Adrianna is a vocalist and keyboardist, studying with Robbin Massie and Jim Goldsworthy, who have both had a great impact on her musicianship and teaching philosophy. Currently she is the music director at Christ Congregation in Princeton, and looks forward to finding her first public education position once she graduates. In the words of Barbie, “It is the best day ever. So was yesterday, and so is tomorrow, and everyday from now until forever” as long as I’m serving the world through music.
Brian Williams graduated from Westminster Choir College with a bachelors of music in music education and masters of art in teaching. Returning to the classroom that sparked his love for music, he is completing his ninth year as the choir director at Robbinsville High School. Extracurricularly, he directs the high school musical and is a co-advisor of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. Outside of Robbinsville, Brian is the music director for the Kids and Teens in the Park summer program run by Middlesex County and is the music director and producer for the Woodbridge Community Players. He also currently serves as president for the Central Jersey Music Educators Association and is the New Jersey Music Educators Association's choral performance chair.
INSTRUMENTALISTS
Peter DeMets, Alexandra Ogrodnik, Steven Ridge, Caty Butler, Nikki Weaver
THE PROGRAM
Pond Road Middle School Choirs
Sleigh Ride - Music by Leroy Anderson, Words by Mitchell Parish Arr. Kirby Shaw
French Carol Duet - Traditional Carols arr. Mary Donnelly and George L. O. Strid
Light the Legend - Michael Isaacson
Under Winter Moon - Andy Beck
Give Me Oil in My Lamp - Traditional American arr. Kyle Pederson
Robbinsville High School Choirs
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Traditional Carol arr. Molly Ijames
Riu, Riu, Chiu* - Spanish Carol arr. Russell Robinson. Allyson Wolochuk, Prithvi Arumugam, Naishada Kotagiri, Angie Brown, Anusha Nandan, Addis Tafesse, Summer Heyburn, Eric Steinberg; Soloists
Mary, Did You Know? - Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene arr. Jack Shrader
Text Me Merry Christmas* - David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger arr. Alan Billingsley. Sidney Davis, Eric Steinberg; Soloists.
Chanukah Suite - arr. Jason Robert Brown. Maxim Rychkov, Eric Steinberg, Sana Anand, Lucy Daly, Katie Pivovarnick, Sandhya Muthukumaran, Ranvir Singh, Allyson Wolochuk, Darsh Jaiswal
Bring a Torch* - Traditional French Carol arr. Alice Parker and Robert Shaw
Winter Song - Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson arr. Mac Huff. Olivia Wint, Soloist
*RHS Chamber Choir
Robbinsville High School Concert Choir and the Pond Road Middle School 6th through 8th Grade Choirs
Hope for Resolution - Paul Caldwell / Sean Ivory
ROBBINSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL CHOIRS
Robbinsville High School Concert Choir - Anshuman Agara, Tarren Allen, Sana Anand, Prithvi Raaj Arumugam, Angella Brown, Giancarlo Crapanzano, Lucy Daly, Elizabeth Davis, Sidney Davis, Marisa DiMeola, Ashna Dubey, Michaela Dutka, Sanjita Ethiraj, Mahjanae Fowler, Izzie Ghen, Hailey Harrison, Summer Heyburn, Emmalyne Holt, Felicity Holt, Gwenyth Holt, Kara Huang, Anwita Indukuri, Darsh Jaiswal, Daniela Kamel, Patrick Koryat, Naishada Kotagiri, Katie Kratz, Elliora Liebmann, Ria Mahajan, Sandhya Muthukumaran, Julia Myers, Anusha Nandan, Kavya Nayak , Amanda Nuñez, Veronica Pena, Amelie Perez, Katherine Pivovarnick, Swapna Ramachandran, Ivy Rizzo, Maxim Rychkov, Shreya Savur, Ashley Semmel, Brianna Semmel, Sanjana Shahade, Sanjna Shankam, Jillian Shenghit, Samuel Silva, Ranvir Singh, Ryan Stanton, Eric Steinberg, Addis Tafesse, Madison Tietjen, Kaitlynne Tighue, Hailey Tkacs, Aanya Tummala, Brianna Van Nest, Isha Veerubhotla, Natalie Villegas, Akshaya Vinod, Gabrielle Vlaun, Olivia Anaya-Faith Walker, Pierson Ward, Olivia Wint, Allyson Wolochuk, Emma Wong, Sivapriya Yallapragada, Shruthi Yarraguntla, Srija Yerneni, Melanie Zipp
Robbinsville High School Chamber Choir - Tarren Allen, Prithvi Raaj Arumugam, Angie Brown, Sidney Davis, Summer Heyburn, Felicity Holt, Naishada Kotagiri, Ria Mahajan, Anusha Nandan, Amelie Perez, Maxim Rychkov, Shreya Savur, Eric Steinberg, Addis Tafesse, Aanya Tummala, Olivia Anaya-Faith Walker, Allyson Wolochuk, Sivapriya Yallapragada
POND ROAD MIDDLE SCHOOL CHOIRS
6th Grade - Vicentia Ackah, Oishi Agarwal, Haniya Ahmed, Setemi Ahmed, Irene Antoney, Capri Avellino, Avneet Battu, Fiona Bukharovich, Liv Campbell, Megan Cecil, Irene Chuisaca, Josie Claro, Henry Conti, Karaj Dang, Makenzie DaRocha, Isha Deshmukh, Vihaan Deshmukh, David Dzhafari, Aiperi Elkady , Briyonni Ellerbe, Erin Emigholz, Madilyn Estelle, Leah Faleska, Kaitlyn Ferrone, Fiona Finnegan, Twisha Gandhi, Olivia Ghen, Sahasra Gorantala, Ishita Gorantla, Risha Gowda, Eva Grover, Ian Gruca, Yatharth Gupta, Eliana Halpern, Astitva Handa, Iman Hussain, Anika Iyer, Rajani Jagadish, Sanskrit Jee, Samuel Jiang, Autumn Juliano, Will Juran, Anoop Kaur, Garvit Khali, King Khatinsky, Aadith Kuttin, Jude Labetti, Caylee Landow, Lillian Lenahan, Arnav Lotia, Isha Maddi, Ananya Madhurakavi, Brielle Meeks, Ayaan Mehta, Aanya Chingapurath Menon, Shreya Meruva, Bhavika Mudiyala, Aiden Murphy, Aliza Zehra Naqvi, Aashna Nayak, Alexis Ngo, Aradhya Nimma, Ryan Tushar Padhye, Jenika Parikh , Anya Parmar, Jiya Patel, Krishna Patel, Mukt Patel, Pavni Patel, Rani Patel, Yagnaa Patel, Nevaan Pathak, Aditi Pattanayak, Jack Polito, Julia Pomeranz, Shagun Rajsheel, Aryaa Ranjan, Aubrey Richman, Mason Scatena, Juliana Scott, Anshika Sharma, Yuvaan Sharma, McKenna Stratton, Rasika Sudarshan, Brynne Sumner, Isabella Thompson, Serafina Thompson, Abha Grace Trivedi, Sreehaas Tumoju, Nandhish Umakanth, Laasya Varshini Vangipurapu, Justin Viola, Sabrina Vlaun, Emma Voorhees, Srinika Yennaamaneni, Arya Yildiz
7th Grade - Oluwasemilore Ahmed, Abbigail Amato, Laya Arumugam, Genesis Bates, Hrithvik Bhavanam, Stuti Bhujang, Avneesh Billam, Harlow Carrigan, Caiden Casale, Vatsal Chamoli, Alina Chubis, Misha Dani, Arshia Dhamija, Nikol Dimitrova, Berna Domac, Maureen Dutka, Zoya Fazal, Charlotte Galluccio, Ranbir Singh Gandhi, Anoushka Ganti, Mia Godfrey, Isha Gulati, Carson Hannum , Amy Harmer, Keira Houlihan, Emma Jablonski, Tarini Jalagam, Vrishank Jannapureddy, Kaylan Joskowicz, Dhriti Kalthod, Ira Kekatpure, Suvrath Kesaraju, Raagav Kilari, Jahnavi Kommanaboina, Anagha Kovuri, Stephanie Latushka, Olivia Liebnitz, Luis Lopez, Grace Maggipinto, Sonia Mahajan, Julianna Markos, Charlotte Moorcroft, Gabrielle Mueller, Rishi Muthukumar, Harish Muthukumaran, Ahana Nandy, Aanya Nayak, Sunaya Nayee, Dionisio Nolasco, Ariana Olivares, Alis Onat, Aryan Patel, Rajvi Patel, Yashvi Patel, Laila Penaloza, Fiona Peter, Logan Poprik, Abhishek Priolkar, Trina Raha, Gurman Rai, Sahana Rai, Advik Rao, Ronith Rao, Liana Reddy, Srijan Reddyalla, Thomas Reid, Aiden Roberts, Zuly Sandoval , Nakshatra Satheeshkumar , Vihaan Saxena, Achyut Seshadri, Carina Shah, Vrushti H. Shah, Rithvik Shankar, Shreeyanshi Sharma, Anmol Shukla, Aarush Singh, Annabelle Song, Celia Sparandera, Arthi Subramanian, Medha Thummalapally, Leah Tighue, Reilly Tkacs, Alexis Tomasello, Anika Tummala, Jainil Vaidya , Siddharth Vaidyanathan, Donovan Vasquez, Dhruv Venkatesh , Janani Vijayakumar, Smairah Wadhawan, Alexis Wint, Inaya Zaidi
8th Grade - Jesutobiloba Dave Ajewole, Divyansh Ameta, Josie Basora, Kendall Bethea , Andrew Borghard, Neha Boubalan, Isaac Boyle, Jack Bruno, Penelope Bukharovich, Meghan Cabral, Melody Chan, Sahana Chittala, Pierce Cicero, Jolie Cleare, Rhiannon Clonan, Jaap Dhillon, Ruhana Dhillon, Marina Ferrari, Kinsley Franke , Shaivi Gaddam, Lily Gertsman, Laksh Golecha, Sienna Golizio, Snigdha Gonugunta, Jaden Gracias, Emma Harrison, Auggie Hernandez, Michael Hughes, Sarah Jebastine, Tanvi Katragadda, Harleen Kaur, Sophia Kharab, Evan Kharitonov, Pollyanna Korobochka , Naidhrua Kotagiri, Akshar Krishnamoorthy, Reina Kuchana, Niranjan Kumarasamy, Ishika Mahadani, Favian Maldonado, Sahasra Mamidala, Emma Napierkowski, Nivi Narapareddy, Sloka Nimma, Sahaili Patel, Varshitaa Perlin, Vanessa Peroni, Aj Phull, Ethan Prabhakar, Sophia Price, Alexa Ritzer , Celia Rockoff, Claire Rockoff, Bella Rossi, Jeaniene Roy, Aaustin Ruffin, Daawn Ruffin, Aashi Sakhardande, Morayo Salako, Ishana Samisetti, Olivia Sanchez , Aahana Sathappan, Aashni Sathappan, Anika Saxena, Pia Saxena, Hannah Setlight, Meghna Shankam, Haley Shapiro, Chaarvi Sharma, Rachel Sharma, Nora R. Steinberg, Juliette Stout, Sreenidhi Sureshbabu , Bhakti Vaidya , Giovanna Vilatoro Taglianeti, Iryna Vorotylko, Thomas Wang, Karmen Young, Kylah Zdeb
UPCOMING MUSIC DEPARTMENT EVENTS
Thank you to everyone who made this concert possible! Special shoutout to the dedicated student musicians seen on stage today and to the support they receive from their families to continue to pursue an art form they love. As always, thank you for keeping the arts alive in Robbinsville. Have a lovely and safe holiday season!