Two for One All County Concert

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This January both Olivia and Grant were selected to sing with the Wayne County All County Choir!! Grant sang as a Bass in the 7th and 8th Grade choir and Olivia as an Alto in the 9th-12th grade group.

In order to get selected at the Middle School level you must audition for your chorus teacher. At the high school, auditions are completed in the fall. Schools travel to the appointed audition school where students must sing in quartets-a capella, one group at a time in front of an adjudication panel. It is a nerve-wracking experience and often the audition piece is in a foreign language. You are selected individually-not as a quartet. This was the first year that Olivia was selected for the high school choir and she was very happy. Those voice lessons this fall gave her some much needed musical confidence and this year was a great "musical" one! Participating in the RPO choir as well as making it into Vocal Jazz Ensemble were very exciting musical ventures.

It was so nice that both Olivia and Grant sang at the same concert!


Olivia and Grant at All County-Grant's choir sang first and he changed before we had time to snap a photo of them both in Concert Dress!

 I remember how exciting  it was to participate in ensembles like All County. You spend Friday afternoon at another school surrounded by other kids who love to make beautiful music too...all while working with a new conductor, learning fun new warm-ups and usually working on some really cool music. Getting up early on Saturday to travel back to rehearse again before the afternoon concert was even fun-and I am not a morning person! It's also lots of fun to sing with your friends from other schools. Grant and Olivia both have friends throughout the county from dance, sports, theatre etc. and it makes the weekend fun. Or you could end up sitting next to someone crazy/funny/annoying/interesting...which always makes for a fun story!

Below are two selections from Grant's choir. He was waaaay up on the top row because he was singing Bass. I tried to zoom in on him!

Grant on the top row as a Bass!

Here is a quick selection from Ching-a-ring Chaw (Aaron Copland, arr. Fine)-Grant liked the funny lyrics...



And now for a little swing! Here is It Don't Mean a thing if it Ain't Got That Swing (Ellington/Mills):

 
Here's Olivia in the high school group.

I was so excited to read in the program that the Senior High group was singing Mozart's Lacrymosa from Requiem, K, 626. I sang it freshman year of high school and I love the haunting melody!

Here is a more upbeat selection: The William Tell Overture (Rossini, arr. Eschliman) The kids really loved the fun Choir-ography...!

Mom, Dad and I really enjoyed listening to the concert especially because BOTH Olivia and Grant were in it! Hope you also enjoyed the selections above!