The MCHS choir department hosted their final concert of the year on Tuesday this week, including performances by the treble, bass, and chamber choirs in addition to the usual groups (concert choir, varsity choir, and mixed chorus). It was followed by an end-of-year awards ceremony.
For the past thirty years, the concert choir, comprised of juniors and seniors, has concluded their segment of the concert with a song titled “Freedom Come”. The final act in a larger work entitled “Bandari”, “Freedom Come” is written in a South African style and includes a large number of soloists and drums.
The focal point of the piece is a small group of dancers with poles who use a combination of the poles and their steps to add additional rhythm to the overall performance. This year’s group of dancers were Jonathan Thangaraj (’25), Samuel Schwarz (’26) and Carter Long (’26).
“It’s all about like bringing your burdens and bringing your sorrows, like, to one another and to God,” said Schwarz.
Prior to the performance of ‘Freedom Come” last Tuesday, choir director Ethan Pruisman announced that this year’s “Bandari” dance would be the final one for the foreseeable future.
“We decided to change the song, [but] we don’t plan on changing the importance of ‘Bandari’ and its being used in the classroom and on trips,” said Pruisman in an email to the Riverhawk Press staff.
The tradition of performing “Bandari” started thirty years ago when composer Ben Allaway approached then director Joel Everest about performing the piece. While initially performed in its entirety, the performance was eventually clipped to just the final movement, “Freedom Come”.
When director Prusiman attended Mason City High School, he was also a part of the “Bandari” tradition.
“It is different being on the other side of it now,” said Pruisman. “Directing ‘Freedom Come’ now shows that this Concert Choir, a group of students I didn’t know at all in high school, are making music at the same level as our group did.”
According to Prusiman, community is an essential part of the choir experience. “Every year the students build their family and community or ‘Bandari'”, said Pruisman. “Throughout the years the students have learned what Bandari means to them and each group it changes.”
“It teaches students how to connect with each other deeper than on the surface,” he added.
Thangaraj agrees that community is an important part of choir. “It’s a really good group of like people, so it’s kind of like a family,” he said.
Thangaraj agrees with Pruisman that it is time to start creating new traditions. “[Pruisman said] It’s time for a change and we all agreed,” he said. “We kind of wanted to start some new traditions.”
Going forward, Prusiman says that there will be a new song to replace Bandari in the future. “We are sure there will be a new traditional song that will encompass the ‘Bandari’ message and feeling, but we are unsure what that is going to be right now,” he said. “We aren’t getting rid of the feeling of ‘Bandari’, we are just moving on from Freedom Come and finding a new piece to connect to and continue that feeling.”
There are some perks with this being the final year of the “Bandari” dances. “We got to take home the poles,” said Thangaraj. “Usually, it belongs to the choir, but we just kind of kept it as souvenirs.”
“Maybe I’ll let people sign it at my grad party,” he added.
