On May 10th, Box Elder High School's concert choir took the stage at The University of Utah, performing before a panel of judges and showcasing the songs they had rehearsed throughout the year.

Laura Segura, a choir student, talked about choir and what she does to prepare for state.

"In my opinion, what really matters is the bond we share as friends and how we support each other during madrigal practice. With us performing, it blends our voices at the state level. Personally, I often feel nervous and shaky when it's time to perform," shared Segura.

Choir holds significant importance at BEHS, students give their all when they are preparing and practicing.

Stanley Crew Richards, a choir member, expressed his excitement for the state competition, explaining the months of preparation leading up to this event. 

“Concert choir is something that you do when working on pieces, you work on them for months and with state, since state is one of the big things for us and everything we have been working for leads us to the big events.” said Richards

Choir holds a special place in BEHS students, who gave their all into this year's performances, making it one of the most memorable yet.

The state choir competition ended with Box Elder securing gold in both arioso and concert choir categories.

A new photography exhibition titled “Intersections”  is on display at Brigham City art Museum until April 20 when it will close to public viewing. This free exhibition is open to the public from Tuesday through Friday 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. and Saturdays from 1 P.M. to 5 P.M.

 The showcase was curated by producer Alana Blumenthal and centers around the theme of intersections which “can be found in a physical place, emotional response, a relationship, a professional choice… or any other part of life we dare to confront,” according to the Brigham City Museums website. The exhibition features many local artists.

“It is a community show that anyone can submit art to,” Blumenthal said

The museum had exceptional pictures and artwork. The exhibition opened at the Brigham City Art Museum located under the Senior Center on Saturday, February 3rd, 2024. 

“I love to see people's pictures, drawings, and paintings coming in and out of rotation. Anybody is welcome to participate in the show,” said Blumenthal.

Mrs. Blumenthal, the art director, draws inspiration from various sources.

“I'm really inspired not by one specific piece of art, but I love to see people reach out and try new things, whether they've done it before or are newcomers. I love to see kids and adults participate,” she expresseses.

The Brigham City Art Museum boasts a diverse array of wonderful and beautiful art, with a dedication to showcasing people's submitted work.

“The showcase of art rotates around different genres of topics, and every few months, we change it. This month, it is photography,” Blumenthal explained.

Anyone who is interested in visiting this new free exhibition can find it at 24 North 300 West Brigham City. It is located on the lower level of the building. Parking is free and plentiful. 

Box Elder students compete at the school-wide Poetry Out Loud recitation to decide who will move forward to the regional competition on February 1st, 2024. This event is a nation wide contest in which students recite a famous poem from memory while adding a dramatic interpretation.

Brock Cheney, English teacher at Box Elder and poetry lover, is the Region Coordinator for Poetry Out Loud. He explained how much effort he has put into this for the past 3 years as the organizer. However, he’s been a part of Poetry Out Loud for much longer than that.

“I first got involved with Poetry Out Loud in about 2011. I was teaching in a different school and it was a very small school.” Cheney explained. “My students got involved and they ended up going to the state competition. It was a big deal for them because they were from such a tiny little town. 

This shows that it’s important to try, because you never know how much you’ll be able to achieve. Cheney also gives some words of encouragement for those who did not do it this year or who were too afraid to. 

“Things get less scary if you do it more often,” he expressed. As a teacher, he talks in front of people every day and he explained that it’s not scary anymore because of how much he does it. Poetry Out Loud is a good opportunity for young people and poetry helps with expression.

Alize Cruz, a junior, placed first in this year's school competition with the poems “Another One of The World's Liars” by Mohja Kahf and “Lineage” by Margaret Walker. Cruz isn’t a novice to the competition and placed runner-up in last year’s competition.  

“I thought that I did really good and then I would see the others performing and, oh my gosh, they did amazing!” Cruz described.

Second place was taken by Katie Hokanson, and honorable mention was Olivia Crane, a sophomore. Poetry gave all these young people a chance to improve their public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history.

“Everyone in the audience leaves a Poetry Out Loud event feeling deeply touched, hopeful for humanity and heartened. And to me, that’s what poetry does for us- it humanizes us and teenagers need to know that they have power,” said Naomi Shihab Nye, featured poet on the official Poetry Out Loud website.

This year’s Poetry Out Loud Competition at Box Elder High School was inspirational and gave others hope to achieve more next year. 

One of the contestants, Rebekah Peck, and Senior at BEHS, said “I didn't do it last year, and now that I’ve been here, I kinda wish I did.” She further explained the benefits of Poetry Out Loud and poetry as an art form. “It’s a great way to build community. It’s nice to have people who share the same interests as you.”

Alize Cruz and Katie Hokanson will move on to the regional competition and represent the best BEHS has to offer.

For further information on Poetry Out Loud and their events, head to this website:

https://www.poetryoutloud.org/

The voices of Box Elder high school are here to show you exactly what Christmas is about. On Monday Dec. 18th at 7 pm the BEHS choirs are going to sing for the community. 

The new director Dr. Andrew Larson has put lots of time into selecting a variety of music from around the world. Along with making sure his singers are memorized and prepared for the crowd that will be there. 

The concert will have a total of 13 pieces of music. From traditional music known to most, and music from around the world.

This concert is not only about singing but this is the only donation concert available for choir at BEHS. These funds go into new music for the BEHS choirs. These choirs being Arioso, Mixed Chorus, Concert Choir, and Madrigals. New music is to help these choirs into going to regional and state competition this year. 

Porter Forsgren is the concert choir president this year. He stated, “ I am a little nervous. There are some songs that maybe we don't fully have memorized. But there are some songs that are going to be amazing. I think we can pull it together.” 

Being able to sing in front of a crowd isn’t easy. Forsgren is preparing himself by doing this. “ I like to memorize all the words. Especially when all the tenors left i wanted to sing loudly for the tenors and that is how i prepared myself for the concert.” 

Singing loudly for all the hear, these students have put their heart into this concert. Wanting to spread joy and awareness not only to this community but to the world. 

This concert will be Dr. Andrew Larson’s 2nd concert here at Box Elder. “I consider it a great honor to be hired here and to be able to do this work.”

Preparing for a concert isn’t supposed to be simple. It involves learning notes, chords, timing, and cues. Larson stated, “ I have to watch my mental, emotional, and physical health because there is a physical and emotional taxation for presenting music at that level.”

Misa Findlay, the amazing accompanist, has been here with us at Box Elder for many years now. She puts much hard work and dedication into making sure she is playing her part right. Not only does she play the piano wonderfully she also helps the students grow as singers. Whether it's  helping students with their notes, or diction, she's a truly great person to be around.

Findlay emphasized, “ honestly my job is more organizational and behind the scenes. It’s making sure we are booking events and connecting with the community… helping the choir run and function well.” 

“Playing the piano is not the challenging part. I think the hardest part for me is interaction with students.” 

Not only do the choir students have to stay interacted but the director and pianist are there to help the students realize how important the work being done truly is. 

This year they will be ending the concert with Silent Night as a combined chorus. This piece is very important not only to the community but to each and every choir student. 

With the hope of ending the night in peace, comfort, and joy, The voices of Box Elder High wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. 

During Bee Time on Friday, Nov. 17th the Soprano-Alto (SA) choir and Tenor-Bass (TB) choir will be performing in the choir room. This is going to be these last classes performances for the trimester until the new one arrives. Underneath the direction of the new choir director Doctor Larson. They have studied well with their music and are ready to show the school exactly what choir is about. 

The pieces that the SA choir will be singing are The Gospel Train, Will There Really Be a Morning, and How Can I Keep From Singing.

 The TB choir will be singing Dry Bones, Trilogy of Knighthood, as well as Wheels of a Dream. Together these choirs will be singing the National Anthem and Let All the World in Every Corner Sing.

Larson said, “They are preparing mostly during their class time 1st hour and 4th hour. They start by learning all the notes and then we polish and refine it by learning how loud and soft to sing and what vowel formations we use with our mouths and trying to get as much resonance in our tone that we can.” 

This shows that giving a concert provides a lot of preparation. It needs to be thorough and well throughout. It involves good sound, proper vowels, and well learned notes. It also shows how the students have to be prepared as well as the director. Without the director the sound wouldn’t be as amazing as it truly can be. 

Along with Larson some students were given the opportunity. This is to give an insider's point of view on how they feel and what students can look forward to. 

Kamri Peck is sophomore in the Soprano- Alto choir. Peck said “Definitely the songs are something to look forward to. Along with the bonds everybody has made through the class.” 

Two BEHS vocal artists participated in an off-school grounds rap battle that has the social scene in school buzzing. Gavin Southern AKA Silent G released his rap battle against Brandon Christianson  AKA B Rizzle on Oct 9th on youtube, dividing the schools music scene. 

 Both have pursued the music industry and choose the route of hip hop. Being some of the only two students at BEHS to release music and have monthly listeners, they decided it was time to put themselves to the test and have a good old fashion rap battle.                               

Silent G has performed at a couple talent shows throughout the years and has been making music for 4 years now. Making music has always been an outlet for him and one of his biggest inspirations behind his music is lil peep. 

In our interview I got to ask him how the battle went he responded “ I mean, I think it went pretty good, people saying I won and stuff but I try to keep my head low” very humble with his art showing how much respect he has for the game, hoping one day his music can one day form into a career. 

This was one of his very first rap battles and he would like to continue with them, maybe giving us a chance to see him in the ring again but until then he has released a new sound called “thinking of you, can't sleep” where you can listen to on sound cloud.

B Rizzle has been freestyling for a few years now and started releasing music in february. Some of his inspirations are Eminem, Lil Teca, J Cole and Juice WRLD.

He reflected on his resent battle and said, “I mean I got destroyed because the adrenaline got to me it really got to me and I couldn't even read my own lyrics … feel like it got to me and i stumbled over my own words and I just lost it.” 

  Sometimes the pressure can get to you and Brandon does not deny that which shows his humility and knows when he has upped but knowing this Brandon admits his loss, what went wrong and what he will do better next time, showing how true he is to his art and how he wants to improve. 

 Brandon is working on a few new projects and albums he hopes to release soon. His music is across 30+ platforms some are spotify, apple music, Amazon music, and Pandora.

  Both these inspiring, young, talented musicians from box elder high school are on the come up. They are determined and know where they want to take music or better yet where they want it to take them. 

Watching the battle you could tell that they know how to please a crowd and spit some heat. These are respectful rappers who have their hearts and minds in the game and are doing what they can to make it to the top.

Tickets are on sale now for BEHS production of Le Miserables performed on Nov. 3rd -11th featuring over 100 students on stage. 

The Buzz took a behind the scenes tour and saw all the action that happens for this performance to come together. The BEHS theater department began auditions for this show in May of 2023. They began summer practices for the performance in June. 

Madelyn Little, a senior at BEHS, was casted as Fonteine. She discussed her dedication and preparation.

“We had a lot of summer rehearsals for vocals and I watched Les Miserables.” Little said. She also discussed the challenges of being in the play. “it's hard balancing school and the musical.  I don’t have a lot of time to study for tests and things like that.”

The main cast and crew members worked two days a week in June developing their vocals, choreography, and lines. The remainder of the cast and crew prepared for participating in the summer peach days parade.

Issac Sadler, who plays Jean Val Jean, said they spent three to four hours practicing every Monday and Saturday during the summer months. Once school started he claimed they worked six hours a day after school on the production.

Kaitlyn Wilson, a sophomore who is a part of the ensemble, shared her experience as well.  Wilson had a bit of experience working behind the scenes of musicals and plays from Camp Rock at Box Elder Middle School. Wilson gave advice to other students interested in entering the performance space. 

Wilson said, “Doing as many plays and musicals as you can but not giving up your whole life to do it.  Make sure you still enjoy it but do not push yourself too hard.”

Katie Tolmen, another Sophomore in the ensemble, talked about the challenges of the play as well.  “The most challenging part for me is trying to get into character.  Sometimes you instantly connect with a character but others it's harder and takes more time.”

Cast members aren’t the only people who have been working tirelessly on the play, a large part of the play is stage crew and stage tech. Blane Davis, a current member of stage tech said that he has been working o the production six-days a week since school started. 

The production will be showing November 3rd, 4th, 6th, 10th, and 11th at the Box Elder High School Theater. Tickets are for sale now for $12 dollars and should be purchased online at the Box Elder High School Website. All students and community members are encouraged to attend. 

The BEHS fall art show has a lot to offer, all types of mixed media displayed for anyone to view. 

The purpose of the art show is for students to show off their pieces, typically one piece, or if they are confident, two. Brad Williams, an art teacher explained what the art show means.

“[The] Art show for us is for ceramics, sculpting, drawing, painting, photography. We’re all going to display artwork to show what you guys have been creating. So, it’s kind of a celebration of what you guys have done for that term.” 

The show will be set up in the commons area on Monday during school, and will remain open for the remainder of the week for anyone who wishes to visit, including family and friends. Students will be setting up the art show. The art teachers are in charge of the art show as far as planning it and wrapping it up, although, during the art week, the office will temporarily be in control. 

There will be a showing open to the community Tuesday, Nov. 15th  at 5PM - 6PM starting with the art opening. 

Students will also have the opportunity to sell their work. 

Williams said, “We’ll have a price on them and then if they want to purchase them, they just go to talk to the secretary in the office, the secretary will take the money and the tag. We’ll have a little tag on it so we know who the money goes to and then they can take your artwork.”

Williams goes on to say the typical price range, “Depending on what you’re doing, think of how much time they’ve spent into it. . . Think of something that’s going to be prodigious, typically for us, anything from like 5 dollars - to 50 dollars. I have had people purchase things up to 150 dollars for a piece.” 

Williams states there will be about 500 pieces of art for show, but only a handful will usually get purchased. 

“It depends on who shows up. . . sometimes we’ll have kids that’ll come and somebody says there’s an offer on my drawing for 5 dollars - and I'm like, are you serious? That took you like 4 hours to draw? Then I’ll hand them the money with only 5 dollars and they’re kinda disappointed,” Willaims’ stated. 

Prices will range, depending on the time spent and how big your piece is. If you set your price range low, then you’ll most likely get a low offer, which can definitely be a big disappointment to your work of art. Yet you can’t set it too high because your piece will be out of students ' price range. 

“Most artists do this to price it - how many hours did it cost you to create it and then what materials did you use, what that expense was, that’s what you’ll kinda put the price.” 

No matter if the art sells, the experience for the students is priceless.

The school musical Elf is coming this December, and preparations are in full swing. Mrs. Day, stage crew and cast have all been working tirelessly for months.

Despite the fact that it is a winter play, conditioning and rehearsals started in the early summer. The cast was in the parade on July 3rd, and conditioning started around the same time. Everything from costumes to lighting has been rehearsed over and over. The cast members have been working hard to memorize all their lines. 

 “Getting everything memorized, just keeping track of everything, I memorize decently, but there’s a lot.” stated Davis Nelson who stars as Buddy the elf. 

Not only do they have to memorize lines, but they also have to memorize dances, transitions, and sometimes the actors help with moving props.  

Eliza Blanchard part of the dance core, says the hardest part about being in a school musical is “ Living at the school 24-7 because of practice.”

In the past, BEHS has had a three-hour rehearsal everyday after school, but more recently it has shifted to a two-a-day rehearsal on Saturdays for four hours, and Mondays for four and a half hours, the core cast also has theater as a sixth-hour class. 

“We’ve done a lot of our blocking stuff, we've done almost all of our songs and dances and that stuff, most of our stuff now is just memorization and to see if we want to add stuff or not.” stated Nelson.

Stage crew has also been working to make sure that all of the painting, props, costumes, and lights are exactly how they should be. The students get the assignments from Mrs. Day or Mr. B, the technical director.

“There’s so much [planning], there is an entire week just dedicated to the lights and getting them in the correct position…to the lights and other tech things. It’s amazing,” stated Triston Peterson. 

Because the musical does not receive money from the school, many of the costumes are sewn by seamstresses working for the play or are rented from other schools.  At least two scenes worth of costumes were rented and the North pole scene alone has 75 costumes.

Mrs. Day has one of the hardest jobs in the play; directing. She has to keep track of everything and everyone and make sure that it's running smoothly. “It’s a challenge, just keeping track of all the moving pieces.” 

Not only that but cast members may not always get along, and no matter where you are, there will always be some conflict. 

“Recently, with the loss of the previous seniors, it has been a little shaky, but with me personally and the rest of the stage crew members…I feel like we have a really great connection to most of the cast and crew right now.” stated Peterson. 

Mrs. Day said that all the kids have been working incredibly hard, and she feels that they are in a very good place. 

For information on how to order tickets, visit this website:

http://behstheatre.weebly.com/

Last week Box Elders art classes held an art show in the commons. Pottery, painting, drawing and photography were displayed for all students to see.  

The art classes continue to amaze Box Elder with their improving art skills 

“This trimester’s art show we just had looked nice. We had some very talented students this year. This [The art show] really shows a lot of the skills that they have been able to acquire throughout the year,” art teacher Bradley Williams states. 

Nathan Hokanson, a student in photography 1, talked about how he feels on getting 2nd place, 

“I was pretty surprised cause it was just a picture. I thought it was pretty cool, it’s something different that I don’t think a lot of people see.” He then goes on to describe his piece, “I’ve seen a lot of toy photography where you just take pictures of toys. I saw a lot of stuff where you take an air can and you kick up the dirt and capture that motion so it looks like he's in a battle.”

Enyssa Clark, a student of pottery,  talked about her recent piece that she put in the art show; a self portrait of her hand. She goes on to explain, "It looks like it's kinda rising out of the table. Originally when I was thinking about it, it was going to be holding the weight of the world; but then I kinda liked where it could be sitting on the ground and could be rising from the world." She then goes on to describe another piece she did, "another self portrait bust that's just a head and the chest that goes (about mid chest) here. It doesn’t have any specific defining facial features, it doesn't have ears but it does have eyes, a nose, a mouth.”

Williams continues to say that this year he’s quite proud of his students in the art show, and how they have progressed this year. “Our students are showing high quality artwork this year.” 

The Box Elder High choir went to a state festival on the 13th of May. The choir teacher and students have been preparing for months and are excited to share their talent on the state stage. 

Casey Wood is the Box elder high school choir teacher. “We started prepping this music in October and November,” said Wood. “We've been working on this for mostly the entire year”. 

Wood has been singing since he was a young kid.  “My parents were singers, my dad was a choir teacher,” says Wood. 

Emma Ferry, A choir student at Box Elder High, has been singing since she was five. Before the performance, Ferry said  “I hope we have a good experience, we've worked hard on all of our songs”. Ferry likes the “the kind of emotions you can show through songs”. “You don't even have to speak the language,” Ferry said. 

At the performance, different choirs will go up on stage to sing. “It's kind of this rotation process.” Ferry describes, “will be judged and then will come down to listen to the next choir. “We do get scores but we don't rank the choir,” said Wood. 

The festival took place at the Libby Gardner Concert Hall. Grace Johnson, a choir student at Box Elder High said “It's supposed to be a really great auditorium”. “We'll get some pictures and recordings and some feedback,” Johnson described. 

Johnson was excited to sing, “These songs are really fun, we have a lot of fun singing together”. When asked why she likes singing, Johnson said  “I love how much you can connect to people while you're singing”.

 “I like the kids and I like watching them achieve their goals” Says Wood. The Box Elder choir was excited to go to state, and went to state on the 13th of May. They prepared for months, and have been singing for years. As Wood says, “there's nothing else I’d rather do”. 

Box Elder High School Madrigal, Concert Choir and Arioso groups went to Region Large Group Choir Competitions in Bountiful on Tuesday, March 29.

“It’s not super competitive. It’s just showing off what you’ve been working on to other schools and I think it’s a really fun opportunity,” says Erica Wallentine, a Madrigal.

The competition was held at Bountiful High School. They started with Arioso singing "Psalm 100” by René Clawson, “Grace” by Mark Hayes and “A New Psalm” by Ken Berg and finished with the combined Madrigal and Concert choirs singing “BWV 128 Chorale” by Bach, “Kanaval” by Sydney Guillaume and Martine Joseph and “I Thank You God for Most This Amazing Day” by Dan Forrest (text by EE Cummings). 

“I think we’re definitely ready. Wood has drilled us so hard! We’ve been singing the same songs for, what, 3 months now? We started learning “I Thank You God” in December. I think we’re good,” says Dallin Davidson, a member of Concert Choir.

The choirs work hard to prepare their pieces, starting as little as three months in advance. They work out parts, then get the intricacies of the song down and then they polish and perfect the piece until the performance. 

Most choir students would agree that events like this are more a chance to prove yourself than to win.

“It gives you time to prove your talents,” says Tolman Walker, a member of Concert Choir. 

“I think it’s good competition to go against other schools, but also just choirs coming together and just singing their best. I’m more related to doing our best than to doing better,” states Davidson. 

The way a choir competition works is the choirs go to the agreed upon location, this year it was Bountiful High School. The choir sings a set of pieces for a group of judges and a few other schools. The judges listen to the pieces and give a score based on vocal quality, performance ability and song choice, among other things. It’s a chance for choirs to compete against each other and against themselves, a chance to prove they’re as good as they say.

“It’s not really a competition because you don’t really win anything, so it’s more against ourselves to show off,” says Wallentine.

“Choir is fun! I feel like it gets a bad rep because one, the teacher is a little over exaggeratedly mean. Wood is a good dude, if a little intimidating,” says Davidson, “You don’t have to be a perfect singer to be in choir. A lot of people think that, but it’s not true! I make mistakes and I consider myself to be pretty darn good.”

All choirs received superior ratings and qualified for state competitions.

Keep on singing bee choirs!

Box Elder High's Guitar 2 classes held their first performance of the trimester on Friday, April 1 during Bee Time.

Students prepared for the performance by practicing everyday in class. Ashley Labrum, a senior taking Guitar 2, mentioned that she feels the class is very fun and chill. When asked how she prepared for the performance, Labrum stated, “I have a guitar at home, and so I’m just practicing with that and running over the music, and then during class just practicing with the class.”  Labrum also mentioned that playing the guitar is a hobby of hers.

Guitar 2 students are divided into bands to practice and perform with. Kyle Smith, a senior taking Guitar 2, stated about what the bands look like, “I think there are around 6 people per band. We got 2 or 3 guitarists, we got a bass guitar, a drummer, someone on the keys.” Smith stated that he was, “Absolutely,” excited for the performance. 

Excitement for the performance was also found amongst the student body. When asking students if they had heard about the Guitar 2 bands performing, the general consensus was yes. Marshall Rust, a senior, said that he had heard about the bands performing. Dezirae Braegger, a senior, stated her thoughts on the performance, “I enjoy watching them. They are a lot of fun to watch.” Prior to the performance, Braegger stated that she would probably watch it. 

The performance took place during Bee Time where a lot of people could watch. Michael Reeder, the teacher over the Guitar 2 classes, stated that, “It’s just an easy time to get them together. I used to have them perform during class, but then you would have to invite people, but that disturbed other classes, so why not just do it during Bee Time?” Reeder also stated that he felt it gave everyone out there something decent to listen to.

The Guitar 2 class has been at Box Elder High for 3 years now. When asked why he has his Guitar 2 students be in bands, Reeder stated, “I went to a workshop called Little Kids Rock about 3 years ago. It was in Colorado and it was so awesome. It gave me new energy for teaching, actually. I was kind of in a bad place.” Reeder went on to tell more about the Little Kids Rock workshop and mentioned that all these teachers would get together at night and jam. 

Performing in front of people can help to improve skills. “Performing is the best way to practice. Yes 100%. If anything, we should perform more,” stated Reeder. He isn’t alone in feeling that performing helps. Smith also felt that the performing helps to improve guitar skills. Labrum stated, “Yes and no. I'm doing bass so I’m not really learning much guitar technique but I’m learning how to do bass which is also very helpful.” 

Keep a keen eye out for the next time that the Guitar 2 classes perform in Bee Time.

The year of the tiger was celebrated on Tuesday Feb 1st, during the Chinese New Year celebration, at the BEHS auditorium, where Chinese-language students performed dances and showcased short films they made.  The event was run by Dr. Zhang, the high school Chinese teacher.  

Dr. Zhang said, “I wanted to renew this tradition of celebrating this Chinese New Year, cause I heard that a few years ago we used to do that here at the high school”. While the high school re-launched the tradition, Zhang says that “Unfortunately this year I wasn't able to get the other schools to join us, but hopefully I'm starting a conversation to help with that”.

During the event, Olivia Barker narrated in English, and then Kyden Cefalo would say the announcement in Chinese. The celebration opened with a video greeting from Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah. During his speech, Cox proclaimed, “Many of you have helped build bridges with the rest of the world.”  Mrs. Stacy Loyn, the Utah Chinese DLI Director then also gave a video greeting.  

After the speeches, the Chinese teacher, Dr. Zhang, sang a Min-nan dialect folk song, which came from his hometown. Then a dance was performed by the Chinese pop culture students who were wearing red shirts with black pants. The song was called “Happy New Year.” 

Dr. Zhang said, “We have these college course-level students who produce their little stories in short films. So it's a five, six-minute short video telling a story, but its always done in Chinese”

The rest of the celebration involved these short films. A few shown were, “Little Brother” by Stuart Larsen, “David's Christmas Present” by Anders Powell, “Saving Christmas” by Mia Stokes and Brinley Southwick.

There were also some cartoons, one of them being “Emma's magical power” by Emma Page. Some other things presented was a performance with yoyos, performed by Kyden Cefalo and his siblings. There were also videos from the Chinese middle school classes, with songs and presentations. 

The Chinese New Year was full of art and culture, being presented by the sophomores. “For them it's pretty much like a second language, because they've been working on it for years.” Says Dr. Zhang. There was another video greeting. This time it was from Chinese students from Utah State University. And at the end was an Award ceremony for all of the participants. 

Three students of our school have been selected to go to the 50th Annual High School Art Show at the Springville Museum of Art. The chosen students are Hollie Christensen, Reyn Kiesel, and Jaida York.  According to Hollie Christensen her piece Cave Diver started out as a class assignment for scale so she painted a diver in a cave after working on the piece for a week and a half she completed it. 

Her teacher Bradley Williams originally approached Hollie about submitting the painting to the art show and it was one of the lucky three of the many submissions our school sent, ranging from paintings to digital photography, many of our school's students submitted to the museum. 

Williams had this to say about our students “We have some very talented students here at BEHS and have had some great art produced this year.” 

Springville Museum of Art has been holding this art show for students to show case students around the state since 1971. The show has many awards the students can earn some being scholarships. Williams also has this to say”Each of the 3 students have been creating some fantastic pieces of art and are well deserving of having their art displayed at this show.” The show also has a traveling portion which goes to many high schools, museums, and art galleries throughout the state. When asked if Christensen would be sending her piece on the traveling portion she said she was using it for her portfolio so it would not be going. 

The show has just over three-hundred entries from all over the state and the museum's website says when describing the show's purpose ”This exhibition celebrates the best art being made by high school artists across the state.” All of the pieces are from students so if you are wanting to go see art made by people your age, the show is from February 25th to March 5th 2022. This show is an exhibition of all original or adapted concept works. (Adapted concept works are pieces made using references and adapting an already existing piece made by someone else.)

This show has been a big part of the museum for many years and it isn’t just for students of public high schools it also reaches private and homeschooled students across the state. There were twelve jurors (art show word for judges) who picked the submissions who got put on display. The twelve jurors were split evenly between the different categories which were painting, drawing, mixed media / 3D, and digital and photography.  Also according to the website of Springville Museum of the Arts (this show) “was established to honor the best high school artists in the state for their creativity, talent, and dedication.”  This show was finally able to be held in person again this year after being held completely online last year due to the pandemic. Good job to the students who got to send pieces to the show. 

BEHS theater will be performing Shakespeare's  The Tempest on February  16-17th. 

The play is a combined effort of Mrs. Cheney, a Language Arts teacher, and Mrs. Day, the theater teacher.  While having two teachers work on the play may be unusual, the play is an anomaly in that the of the cast will be gender-bent. 

Emily Matheson, casted as Prospera said "I think one of the most interesting things about the show is how it was casted. We've gender-bent a lot of the roles. Prospero, who is usually played by a man, is now Prospera and king Alonso is now Queen Alonsa. Not only that, but we've split up a handful of the roles."

The play will have some more changes in it than just genderbending the cast they will have a more Asiain influence that will be reflected in some costumes settings and music although the original story will stay the same.  

Matheson explains "Ariel, the magic sprite of the island, has been split into five spirits, and each one represents one of the Chinese elements. Those elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This helps to incorporate some more of the Asian influence." 

Mrs Cheney and Mr Cheney are also involving some school clubs in the production. 

"We're having the Japanese Club join us in our performance to play drums. They'll play a big part in the magical scenes and bring emphasis to certain words or phrases so that the audience knows what things to really grasp onto." Says Matheson. 

Don't miss out on getting your tickets to this play. It is only running for two days, so get your tickets early.