In this recording the choir sings “Choose Something Like a Star” and “Ticket to Ride.”
The Cardinal Ensemble sings “California Dreamin’,” “You Were On My Mind,” and “Back on the Street Again.”
In 1967 it was decided that we needed a bigger house, so in June of that year our family moved to uptown Whittier. Our new house was in the hills, at the end of Philadelphia St. Of course this meant a lot of changes for us, and one of those was that I had a new school (Whittier High) to go to for my sophomore year.
One of the great benefits of the move was the chance to sing in the choir at WHS. The director, Steve Gothold, was a young man, and had a lot of fresh ideas. He also had a lot of talent, and was a great teacher. It was a privilege to sing for him, and in later years I got to sing in two other choirs he directed.
The poster for our end-of-year concert when I was a senior. I love the “hippie” 70s design.
Here’s the program of music that we presented at the concert advertised by the above poster. Click on the image to make it larger for reading.
At the end of my sophomore year, I successfully auditioned for the Cardinal Ensemble. This was the highest-level choral group at WHS, and I was quite proud to be in it. Many high schools at the time had a small, elite group called “Madrigals” that focused on classical music. Mr. Gothold transformed the WHS Madrigals into the Cardinal Ensemble, and we sang pop songs.
I’d never been a fan of the 60’s music, but singing in the Ensemble changed all that. It was really fun to sing songs from the Mamas and the Papas, We Five, and the New Christy Minstrels.
Our group performed for the Kiwanis, Rotary, and similar organizations; for junior high schools and assemblies at our own school; and in big school concerts. These performances would often get us out of school during the day, so that was great!
The choir performed less often, of course, but we traveled to sing at choral festivals as well as singing in school concerts. Once we got to drive down to Long Beach State College (as it was then called) to sing with their choir under the direction of Wes Reed, a friend and former college classmate of Steve Gothold’s. While we were there, they introduced us to a brother and sister named Richard and Karen Carpenter, who were part of that choir. They sang for us, and we were oohing and aahing. A few weeks later Mr. Gothold informed us that they’d been signed by A&M records, and the Carpenters sent a song to Mr. Gothold for our choir to sing.
A photo of the Cardinal Ensemble during my senior year. The boys wore bright burgundy red blazers; the girls’ dresses were black. Our director, Steve Gothold, is in the back row of this picture holding a guitar.
Incredible story!