As we got off to the start of the school year, I resolved to challenge the choir as I do every year. That challenge is to be excellent. To be the best we can be To put forward the best effort you can in class, in order to put on the best concerts we can. I keep reminding them that choir has to work like a team. If one section is goofing off, talking over the singers, then we get less done and our performance will suffer for it. Just as in sports, players can’t goof around or be lazy, and expect to excel on the field, court, etc.. Each year, I go through the filing cabinets and online catalogs to create a concert repertoire that will challenge the students to do their best work. With the large class that graduated from choir last year and the many new students we have this year, I was unsure of what to select. After the couple weeks or so, hearing them as a focused group at mass, I revised the repertoire to make it more challenging. The choir, so far, has risen to the challenge put before them. We’ve hit the ground running in Colts Chorus, visiting our song for the Veterans Day assembly, “In Flanders Fields.” As a song based on the WWI poem, it will be a fitting tribute, as this Veterans Day will mark the 100th anniversary of “Armistice Day,” which ended WWI. Just as well, we’ve begun looking at our Christmas repertoire. Even with choir being five days a week, we need all the time we can get to make sure each piece of music comes together properly and effectively. We need to maximize our time and talents to put on the best concert that we can! Our music will reflect several different styles, presenting a variety of music based on both secular and sacred themes. So far, the 5th Grade Choir has done some fantastic work. Having a larger group of young singers is great for the future of the choir, and there is a lot of talent in to nurture in that class. They’ve shown great promise in singing their respective parts in “Lullaby Noel,” which I’ve uploaded for you to listen to at the end of this post. There’s still plenty to work on with it, but the their ability to stay with their part shows their hard work thus far! However, that’s not all! We will be combining the middle school and fifth graders to create a “Treble Choir” for the Christmas Concert. This combined choir will be spending some extra effort to learn an advanced piece of music for their age group. The song, “Cradle Hymn,” by Kim Andre Arnesan is a piece of music that has been performed by middle and high school honor choirs. Needless to say, it's a challenge. Yet, over the past couple weeks, the students have risen to the challenge as the beginning of the song is starting to come together. It isn’t easy, and sometimes I leave myself thinking it might be too much, but the students never cease to surprise and impress me. Just goes to show that excellence isn't some lofty goal with this group. It's an expectation.
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