By Brooklyn Jensen

Plainwell High School treble choir pulled a 73 in the State Choir Festival May 6, putting them in the Excellent category.

A little over a month ago the class went to Three Rivers High School to perform for districts and received exciting news that they would be advancing to the upper level of the competition hosted by the Michigan State Vocal Music Association.

All choirs must complete a repertoire of three songs. There is a list that MSVMA provides for them to choose from. A song in a  foreign language, an acapella song , and a song from the list are requirements for their performance.

At districts, they executed “Omnia Sol” by Randall Stroope (mix of latin and english), “Seal Lullaby” by Eric Whitacre, and “On the Beach a Night Alone”, an acapella piece by Walt Whitman.

Categories range from diction, rhythm and melody, blend, intonation, and overall performance for each piece. For each category, they earned 4s, 5s and one 3, with 5 being the highest. All comments left by the 3 judges were positive and constructive ones.

“Lovely blend and balanced sound; nice work on dynamic contrast” Adam Boyce, MSVMA judge.

“Unify your vowels” Randi Bolding, MSVMA judge.

“Nice legato” Adam Boyce, MSVMA judge.

“Listen, keep blending, and enjoy harmony.” Norma Freeman, MSVMA clinician.

Before seeing a clinician who talks with them about our sound and how to improve, they completed three lines of solfege, or sight reading. They must speak and sing through lines of music without writing the notes or beats in. As a choir, they find this to be the more challenging aspect, but, they pulled through and are better because of it.

“I am proud of our hard work and how far it got us.” Jessica Steffey, 16’

Treble Choir received an overall score of 97, landing them into the excellent spot, and also landing them their spot at State.

When they found out they had advanced, they selected their next songs and began rehearsing right away. Due to exams, half of the choir was not able to attend regionals so, making it to state was a huge accomplishment.

State Festival also required three songs. Foreign Language, an acapella, and a song from our previous repertoire. They decided on “On The Beach At Night Alone” from their old set, and selected two new ones, “I Loved You” by Jay Rouse, and “Sonatemi Un Balletto”, an italian song by Giovanni Gastoldi.

Again, state judges had positive comments.

“Good preparation, intonation is beautiful.” Randi Bolding, MSVMA judge.

“Good italian-Brava!” Norma Freeman, MSVMA clinician.

“Take each phrase, make it unique.” Randi Bolding, MSVMA judge.

“You seem confident in these rhythms.” Adam Boyce, MSVMA judge.

Due to budget issues, Treble Choir would not be able to advance to Nationals regardless of the circumstance but, they look forward to future performances and opportunities to come.

Mrs Beauchamp, director of the Plainwell choir program, says “I could not be prouder of my girls and the hard work they put into the competition. They stepped up and rose to the occasion.”