| |
Reviews |
December 14,
2005 | vol. XXXIX | No. 3 |
Band and
choir students acknowleged
by TPSMEA
By Amanda Garcia,
Ms Staff Writer
TPSMEA stands for the Texas
Private School Music Educators
Association. Basically, TPSMEA is
designed to bring together the best
musical talent from private and
parochial schools throughout Texas for
one big function.
This year, the TPSMEA Middle School
Honor Choir concert was held on
Saturday, Nov 12. The Middle School
participated in it for the first time
ever.
“We have done the Upper School All State
Choir for years, so I knew this would be
a great event as well. TPSMEA always
puts on high quality events that are
rewarding, enriching and fun for the
participating students,” Kathleen
Cassell, director of the Middle and
Upper School choir said.
The long, grueling practices,
adjustments, and overall preparation for
this day concluded with a two-hour
rehearsal the Friday prior to the event.
“The directors and singers were very
impressed with the quality of the
literature, and the excellent singing.
It is amazing that these students are
able to put together an entire concert
in 36 hours. It takes a lot of
preparation on their part, but it’s well
worth the effort,” Ms. Cassell said
after the concert.
Being selected to sing in the TPSMEA
Honor Choir is a major honor. In order
to audition for a spot, students chose
and recorded two songs from a
pre-selected list of musical pieces.
Judges then selected the TPSMEA Honor
Choir by identifying twenty exceptional
sopranos, altos, tenors and bass
singers.
With the help of Ms. Cassell, four
eighth graders and six seventh graders
were honored this year.
“It was pretty cool being a part of
this, especially since I didn’t think I
would make it. When I did, I was nervous
at first, but then I was excited to be
there,” eighth grader Hannah Wright
said.
It takes work to make TPSMEA count once
the students qualify. Singers are given
several songs to learn and memorize by
themselves at home with only the help of
a CD.
“Learning the songs on my own was the
hardest part for me while being in the
choir,” eighth grader Ali Littlejohn
said.
The members of the choir will be further
recognized for their major
accomplishment at the end of year
assembly.
Also for the first time this year, sixth
graders were given the opportunity to
take part in the Texas Private School
Children’s Honor Choir.
With the same basic system as TPSMEA,
only 100 singers are selected overall,
but ten sixth graders qualified. The
preparation for the concert was the same
for them, too.
“Out of the seven songs we had to learn,
the piece in another language was harder
to memorize than the rest. But other
than that, it wasn’t that hard because
the CD with Ms. Cassell singing the
music made it easy to learn the songs,”
sixth grader Natalie Fine said.
Their performance was also very
successful and entertaining. “I was
amazed that the Children’s Chorus did
all of their music from memory and even
added choreography,” Ms. Cassell said.
The Children’s Honor Choir has a good
chance of becoming a part of the actual
TPSMEA in the future.
“It was fun being a part of something
big, and it was fun to have a bunch of
kids from all these different places
doing something we all like to do. If
nothing else comes up I would love to do
this again next year,” sixth
graderAndrew Austin.
“I felt very proud through this whole
experience because all of the students
did so well. I was also excited that
the students participating got to be a
part of something like this. It’s not
often that you get to sing with a group
of this size and caliber, and I thought
it was great that so many Greenhill kids
got to be a part of it,” Ms. Cassell
said.
|
| |
|
|
top
|
