Opera star gets in spirit of season with Nahant kids

NAHANT – Ute Gfrerer has been a professional opera singer for 24 years, performing all over Europe, but she performed for the first time in front of children on Monday to sing Christmas songs at the Johnson School.The Nahant resident might have been taking an undue risk, singing carols to about 200 students from kindergarten through sixth grade, all wanting to hold a toy drum, a set of jingle bells or other noisemaker. But Gfrerer said she wasn’t there for instruction or to be in the spotlight.”If I wanted a concert where people listened to me, I wouldn’t do it for kids,” said Gfrerer. “They have a lot of energy and they want to make music themselves, and I want them to have fun.”A group of 10 second-grade students even had their own performance for Gfrerer, singing and dancing to a choreographed rendition of “I’m a Little Snowman.”Gfrerer sang both soft and upbeat holiday carols, mixing “Away in A Manger” with “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” She also threw in some cultural variety by singing a lullaby from her native Austria, a Spanish Christmas song that wasn’t “Feliz Navidad,” and she surprised the children when she revealed that “Silent Night” is also an Austrian song.”I want you to listen with your ears and your heart, because if you don’t know the words to the song I am singing, you can listen with your heart,” she said.Watch Grefer perform in a German operaThe concert, held in the Johnson School cafeteria, took place in two groups, the first beginning at 9:30 a.m. with pre-kindergarten through second-grade students, and the second group with third-grade though sixth-grade students at 10:15 a.m.The accompanist, William Merrill, said this wasn’t his first time playing for children, but thought the students were “remarkably well-behaved.””It’s always dangerous when everyone has a musical instrument,” laughed Merrill, “but this was really a pleasure. It’s wonderful to see how well these teachers keep the children under control.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].