Choir

On Tuesday we had our 2nd 7th and 8th-grade concert! Both The choirs crushed their songs! Both 7th and 8th graders sang two songs, and both grades had beautiful solos. In this article, I interviewed Mrs. Hjelm about our concert for her real opinions and thoughts! As well as some critiques. In this article, we can take a closer look at Mrs. Hjelm's thoughts on the performance.

I chose to interview Mrs. Hjelm about our concert for her real opinions and thoughts! As well as some critiques.

Q: “What made you decide on the songs for our choir concert?”

A: “I picked the songs for the concert based on what we sang for the festival. We have to sing a required song for the festival and a chosen song! So I wanted them to be different. One is very slow and melodic and the other is very up beat and in a foreign language. So I tried to get every avenue. I also wanted students with different voices to be able to show what they sing best! Some students prefer an upbeat and louder song while others like a slower sadder song.”

Q: “What did students and parents think of the concert?”

A: “I think that parents enjoyed Down by the Riverside and Bella Ciao. Students seemed to feel the same way. Usually, students prefer to sing more upbeat and happier songs rather than slower melodic songs.”

Q: “What were your thoughts on the student's performance?”

A: “I think both 7th and 8th grade had some things to work on! 8th grade could definitely work on expression, and 8th grade could definitely work on talking in the audience, but as a choir, I think we should work on singing softer as well as Annunciation. Aside from those few things as a choir I think we sang our parts well, and I think the performance overall was well done!”

Q: “What was the hardest song to teach and sing?”

A: “I’d say the hardest song to teach was definitely the Latin piece, Agnus Dei. The pronunciation was hard to perfect.”

Q: “What section would you need more of?”

A: “Definitely Alto. Most girls want to sing the melody which is mostly soprano, But in reality it's the altos who make that beautiful harmony!”

In conclusion, Mrs. Hjelm did an excellent job choosing the songs for the choir concert, which provided a great opportunity for every student to showcase their unique voice. Although there were some areas of improvement, such as expression, talking in the audience, singing softer, and annunciation, the overall performance was well done. Parents and students enjoyed the songs, especially "Down by the Riverside" and "Bella Ciao." Mrs. Hjelm also mentioned that they need more altos’ in the choir, as it adds beautiful harmony to the music. All in all, it was a successful and enjoyable concert!

It's that time of the year again! The choir festival is back, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. With our new seventh-grade singers and the returning eighth-graders, we are sure to take the festival by storm. 

The journey begins on a bus ride that lasts for about thirty minutes. Then, we get to watch other choirs perform, and we compare their singing skills with ours. After that, we will warm up to get ready for our performance. The excitement builds up as we head into the sight reading room and listen to a few other groups. But when we get back, we get to have an awesome pizza party with desserts and drinks of all kinds!

Our choir group has been getting excellent ratings in the last 15 years, those being 1s and 2s. This year, we are determined to keep up the good work. We will sing our hearts out and put in our best effort to get the best rating possible! However, a weak performance will get us bad grades like 3s, and 4s, which are terrible. But we won't let that happen. 

We will sing like there are a million dollars at stake (although there's no actual money involved). I'm excited to be a part of this musical journey, and I can't wait to see us shine on stage.

On March 22nd, 2024, the 7th grade choir was going to go to Hastings High School. But that day a problem struck. There was a snow day. So sadly the choir didn't go. But the next Monday they got to remake it on Wednesday, March 27th. They had a judge come in to score them. They Started by singing the song Take These Wings. They did amazing. It is a song about a huge loss but it has a beautiful melody. The other song was Bella Ciao. It is a song about a soldier losing his wife. But towards the end, there was a very fast tempo. So on the songs, the choir scored a 1. Last was sight reading which they did amazing and got a perfect score. So that wraps up this section.

On March 20, 2024, The 8th-grade choir had its annual choir festival at Lowell HS. On this day we had a slight problem with the bus ride as the drivers went to the wrong school, and because of this mishap we had very little time to warm up. But that didn’t stop us! When we got to the school we ran inside for a 5 minute warm-up and then got on stage. 

After we had sung “Anus Dei” and “Down by the Riverside”. The judge had us practice some new techniques to advance our singing, and then we were off to sight-reading! When sight reading, we all tried to communicate and perfect what we saw before singing it. Once finished, we got to watch some other schools perform while waiting for the news! Once we got on the bus, our lovely teacher Mrs Hjelm told us all the news, We got a 71/90 for performance and 30/30 for sight reading. Because of these results, we are happy to announce that on May 6, 2024, the 8th-grade choir will attend states at Hope College!

Edited by Collin Malone