Record-Journal (Meriden, CT)

ByTiffany Diorio

WALLINGFORD – A well-received performance by the Spanish Community of Wallingford’s music school students at Holy Trinity Church is leading to a totally unexpected encore at the Wallingord Public Library.

The SCOW ensemble will be performing Thursday in the library’s community room in celebration of Three Kings Day. It will be performing eight Christmas songs of Spanish, Mexican and Puerto Rican origin, such as “Alegre Vengo,” “A La Nanita Nana” and “Campana Sobre Campana,” orchestrated by Evangeline Mendoza Bourgeois.

After attending Sunday’s performance at Holy Trinity, SCOW Director Maria Harlow called the library to see if it would be interested in hosting a performance.

“After listening to the eight beautiful songs, I thought it would be a waste for them to just perform once,” Harlow said Monday.

Harlow and Bourgeois met in a Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce networking group when Bourgeois was operating her own music school on Center Street. After seeing Bourgeois’ music students perform, Harlow decided she and her school would be a good addition to SCOW.

“I just saw how she charms the kids and how much fun everyone was having, so it was really a no-brainer to bring her on,” Harlow said.

Bourgeois’ school joined forces with SCOW last June. Since the move, she said, her school has grown.

“I started with two students and now I have around 45,” she said.

Wallingford resident Yazmin Lopez, 12, who joined the school in October after seeing her two cousins perform with the ensemble, will sing and play guitar Thursday. Although she is singing on her own, she says she’s not too nervous.

“I’ve been singing since I was little and I’ve already sung these songs before, so I’m not as nervous as I was before,” Lopez said.

Fifteen-year-old Wallingford resident Mirka Dominguez, who plays guitar for the school, also says that she isn’t too nervous for Thursday’s performance.

“I’m not really scared because I have all the other people playing with me,” she said. Dominguez began studying guitar in Bourgeois’ school in November after realizing that she loved music enough to want to learn to write it. She says that although the students will be performing the same songs they played on Sunday, Thursday’s presentation will still be different.

“We’ll have a completely different type of audience, with people that may not have heard of us,” she said.

Evangeline Mendoza Bourgeois, director of the Spanish Community of Wallingford’s music school, rehearses songs with her students Tuesday.

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