Mead Virtual Choir 2020-2021

Spring 2021

A Blessing

Jay Althouse

A Blessing MVC 202-2021.mp4

A message from Mr. Hulina:

A Blessing has become a Mead Choir tradition over the years. It began in the 2015-2016 school year, Mr. Hulina's first year at Mead. The elegant text influenced by Traditional Irish Blessings with new words by Jay Althouse beautifully expresses the essence of what it means to be part of our Mead Choir Family. Each year, our ultimate winning team begins as strangers with one thing in common, a love for music. Throughout our time together, our bond strengthens as we explore how each person brings a valuable contribution to our shared success. We journey through challenges and celebrations supporting one-another as we individually and collectively grow. As with all things, our time together comes to an end with the conclusion of the school year. One might think this is where it ends. However, our tradition continues when all previous Mead Choir family members are invited back annually to sing A Blessing together. Each year, Mead Choir Alumni have returned to perform this piece again, reflecting on the profound impact this choir has made on all of our lives. This year is no different. We are proud to welcome back Mead Alumni to join us in presenting this year's virtual choir performance of A Blessing.

Bonse Aba

Traditional Zambian Folk Song

Arr. Victor C. Johnson

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BONSE ABA FINAL VIDEO.mp4

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A message from Mr. Hulina:

Bonse Aba is a traditional Zambian folk song that embodies a message of sharing a collective sense of positivity and community. This virtual choir performance was taught, sound engineered and visually constructed entirely by Miss Elise Deremer, our student teacher for Spring 2021! The optimistic musical message of this song was a perfect way to practice building community support and encouragement within our choir family as we evolved our instructional model from fully remote to two day hybrid-in-person/remote to 3 day hybrid-in-person/remote to our continuously growing 5 day in-person/remote instructional models this school year! It was such a pleasure to witness the high energy that all of our choir family members infused in daily rehearsals both from at home and in the classroom. I know I speak for Miss Deremer when I say, we could not be more proud of the resilience, work ethic and enlightened spirits that have all worked consistently to bring you our next Mead Virtual Choir performance, Bonse Aba!

Route 66

Words and Music by Bobby Troup

Arr. Roger Emerson

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Route 66 - MVC 2020-2021 .mp4

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A message from Mr. Hulina:

Not only is Route 66 a historically known highway, but Bobby Troup turned this story into a well-known , iconic Jazz Standard. This arrangement gave the Mead Choir an opportunity to practice jazz techniques including syncopated rhythms, swung eighth notes, jazz articulation, standard jazz dynamics, more complex harmony, a full choir scat soli, solos and more! Be sure to get your kicks with this swinging arrangement by Roger Emerson in Mead Virtual Choir's performance of Route 66.

Winter 2020

The Star Spangled Banner

Arr. Roger Emerson

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The Star Spangled Banner Mead Vrtual Choir 2020-2021.mp4

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A message from Mr. Hulina:

"I am so proud of the dedication and work ethic of our choir team. It is truly phenomenal how our choir community has built a tight-knit and supportive group in such a short time. At the beginning of the year, I shared with our students that there are some things in life that you just cannot accomplish without collaborative teamwork. Choir is one of those things. Every member brings a unique talent level and skill set that collectively breathes life into the music we perform together. It gives me great pleasure to share our first song by the Mead Virtual Choir 2020-2021, The Star Spangled Banner Arranged by Roger Emerson. This song is song represents our groups ability to thrive through the opportunities remote learning has given us. Each choir member was responsible for learning their soprano, alto or baritone voice part and submitting their best recording. I then took each student’s mp3 and layered it together with sound engineering – basically, I made it sound like we were all singing together live! This 1:15 second track represents weeks of student-initiated learning and over 10 hours of sound engineering!

We are proud to share our premiere Mead Virtual Choir 2020-2021 performance!"

Cold and Fugue Season

By: J.S. Bach

Arranged By: Foncannon

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Cold & Fugue Season Mead VC 2020-2021.mp4

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A message from Mr. Hulina:

"Ellen Foncannon adds a light-hearted, creative text to Bach's famous Fugue in G minor melody in our second Mead Virtual Choir performance, Cold and Fugue Season. This two minute classical journey gave our choir the opportunity to develop foundational, "classical" technique, while also utilizing our virtual platform to express student interpretation through creative pictures and short videos. We invite you to grab your box of tissue and join the fun as we proudly perform Cold and Fugue Season arranged by Ellen Foncannon."