Celina Middle School Choirs dazzle the audience and look ahead to Solo/Ensemble contest in two weeks

On Tuesday March 15th, the Celina Middle School choirs shared a concert with the middle school bands at the middle school gym. The groups performed to a packed house, and were poised, confident, and sang wonderfully!

Now, the MS groups are focusing on preparing for Solo/Ensemble contest, which will be held Saturday April 2nd at Minster Middle School. This year, the choir program is taking 22 vocal solos, and 8 vocal ensembles, up from just 10 or so solos last year (no ensembles). Of the 100 students in the middle school choir program, 65 are participating in solo/ensemble contest. This is a great experience for middle school students to perform in small groups and/or as soloists; many will be doing so for the FIRST time in their lives! Solo/Ensemble contest is a free public event. I encourage parents and families of the participating students to come over to Minster to see their student perform. We will be taking busses to Minster. Students needing bus transportation will need to arrive at school at 6:40am for a 6:50 departure. The bus will return to Celina Middle School soon after 4pm that day.

Celina Choirs Earn Superior and Excellent Ratings at OMEA Large Group District Contest!!!

Last weekend, the Celina HS Chamber choir and A Cappella Women competed at the District 3 OMEA Large Group Adjudicated Event. At this event, each choir performs three selections (one from a prescribed list of music) for a public audience as well as three professional choral adjudicators. Immediately after this performance, the choir goes to a separate room with one choral adjudicator where they are given a piece of music they have never seen before. The director and group is given 4 minutes to look at the music, but IS NOT allowed to sing or hum a single note. At the end of the 4 minutes, the choir is given their starting notes, and then sings the music, with piano accompaniment. After this performance, the choir gets ONE additional minute to look over the music again (still no singing), reviewing any errors or "tricky" areas. At the end of the ONE minutes, the choir receives their starting pitches one more time, and then performs the music again, this time UN-accompanied. We practice this process many times in rehearsal before going to contest, to ensure that we do our best.

The Celina Chamber choir received straight Superior (I) ratings onstage, as well as in sight-reading. As a result of their overall Superior rating, they have qualified for State competition, and will compete at Van Buren High School on Saturday April 30th.

The A Cappella Women received one Superior Rating onstage, and two Excellent (II) ratings onstage, as well as an Excellent (II) rating in sight-reading. This means they were only ONE superior rating away from going to state (to qualify for state a group needs at least Two Superiors and Two Excellents).

I am very proud of the performances of both choirs, and am especially excited to be headed to state competition with the chamber choir!!