A $5 ticket gets you into The Sanibel School cafeteria next Wednesday, which is a modest ask for a music program whose middle school choir has already sung at Carnegie Hall.
The annual Fall Music Showcase is set for 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 18 at 3840 Sanibel Captiva Road, the Sanibel-Captiva Islander reported. Meghan Bradbury’s story says the theme is “Music Changes the World,” and the bill is the Steel Drum Band, the Elementary Choir and the Seahorse Chorale. Music director Joey Giangreco invited the community to come hear the students.
Three groups, one cafeteria
The Steel Drum Band is a first-semester elective with 14 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, rehearsing Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Giangreco arranges the songs for the instruments. Wednesday’s set is “We Will Rock You,” “Billie Jean,” “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
The Elementary Choir is the younger room: 27 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who rehearse every Tuesday after school. Their list runs from “Scales Arpeggios” and “Makin’ Music on the Eerie Canal” to “Our Voices Make a Symphony,” plus an “I Love Rock and Roll” melody that folds in “Rock Around the Clock” and “Old Time Rock and Roll.”
The Seahorse Chorale is the year-round elective, 21 students this fall in grades six through eight. Fall rehearsals are Monday, Wednesday and Friday; spring shifts to Tuesday and Thursday. They will sing “Bhombela,” with Zulu-language lyrics, body percussion and stomping, and a Disney-villain set: “Cruella de Vil,” “Be Prepared,” “Trust in Me,” “Poor Unfortunate Soul” and “Gaston.”
They also have an arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” and “God Bless America.” The night ends with the Elementary Choir and the chorale together on “Music Changes the World.”
The stages behind the $5 seat
The chorale was founded in 2016 by Giangreco, WINK News reported, and was scheduled to sing at Carnegie Hall on April 1 at 8 p.m. The Islander later reported that the group, led by Giangreco as music department director and elementary music teacher, performed there in 2024 for the New York Invitational Music Festival. As of that January article, he was in his 11th year at the school, having started as music director. The showcase story adds that the Carnegie performance drew a gold rating.
The Sanibel School Fund said the chorale was invited to Carnegie Hall in 2023, and that the fund helped raise money so students could go. It also sponsored a 50/50 raffle that raised nearly $10,000 for the music department. Travel, it turns out, has a price tag even when the Wednesday ticket does not.
The following year the chorale sang at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Last year it performed at Faneuil Hall in Boston and at the One World Trade Center Observatory in New York, according to the Islander’s showcase report. The cafeteria is the home stage. Those other rooms are the résumé.
Last November, and this one
The 2025 Fall Music Showcase was scheduled for Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. under the theme “Feel Good Vibes,” the Islander reported then. It featured the Steel Drum Band, Elementary Choir, Orff Club and Seahorse Chorale. Adult tickets were $5, admission was free under 18, and sales were to benefit the Music Department.
This year’s published price is flatter: $5 a ticket, with proceeds again supporting the music department. Concession money is aimed at Seahorse Chorale performance fees and at National Junior Honor Society expenses for a Washington, D.C., trip. The chorale is partnering with the school’s NJHS, advised by Michele Nitnitsky, and with Music Celebrations International to find performance opportunities. Students can also attend the LEAD conference in Washington. The planned trip includes a full performance at Church of the Epiphany and a recital.
Croce, Disney Springs, and the bake sale circuit
The calendar does not stop at the cafeteria. AJ Croce has visited the school and heard the chorale. He invited the students to join him at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers on Sunday, Nov. 29, for “Time in a Bottle” and “I Got a Name.” At Disney Springs’ Waterside Stage, the chorale is scheduled for noon on Friday, Dec. 11, a free performance that includes Jim Croce songs and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.”
Getting there still takes the unglamorous money. The chorale and National Honor Society have a car wash at Bank of the Islands from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14. Pumpkin bread from A Bit of Bailey’s can be pre-ordered through Ellen Vinciguerra for pickup at the showcase. The group is also collecting gifts for a Christmas tree fundraiser and auction at Margaritaville Beach Resort on Fort Myers Beach. Donations can go to Vinciguerra at [email protected].
The ticketing strategy is pleasantly uncomplicated: five dollars, Wednesday night, cafeteria doors. The students on that stage are already booked past it.
