This year has been the start of many changes and new opportunities for the students. Today, FC’s choir joins the HHMS students here at Floyd Central at 7pm for this year’s first ever fall festival.
The acapella will be singing only the beginning of “Carmina Burana”, which is originally about an hour long sequence. Then they will sing “When Our Voices Rise” with the middle school choir. Junior chorister Shalee Moss is a part of the smaller group called accidentals, who will be singing “Fly Me to the Moon”.
“For the full choir, we have been working on all of these pieces since the very beginning of the year. As for accidentals, we have only had 4 after-school rehearsals so most of it is learned individually at home,” said Moss.
There will be about 240 singers from several different high schools–and some middle schools–playing during this festival. The students have been putting in constant work to prepare for their first concert of the year.
“We have been practicing these songs since the start of school. In the 2 years I have been in Acapella, we have not done this festival,” said junior singer Brinley Clark.
FC’s choir will be singing a song with the HHMS singers that they have not rehearsed all together before. It will be interesting seeing how they play together for the first time this year, but FC’s singers are looking forward to it.
“I am very excited to sing with the HHMS students. I remember starting a choir in 5th grade and loving to go see the high school choir concerts. I thought they sounded so good and were the best. I would have loved to have this opportunity in middle school and I’m so grateful and beyond proud to be giving it to other middle schoolers,” said Moss.
The choir usually does not perform in the gym, so it will be a change in environment. The Highland Hill singers are gonna be joining them in this new environment, which gives them a look at what is in store when they get to FC. There are also a handful of younger students who are new to choir and this will be their first concert ever. Choral director Angela Hampton highlights the importance of the younger singers being introduced to high school choir.
“It is unique for us to do it that way. We’ve been looking for ways to have a little more interaction with them [HHMS students] so they know if they stay in choir what it’s like here. We haven’t been able to do a true recruitment event over the last few years–where we bring them here and you know, show them around–so this is kind of a smaller way to just get them in our building and show them what it’s like here and expose them to the different groups that we have,” said Hampton.
The choir this year will have a lot of chances to sing in different festivals and concerts. After this festival there is another concert on October 19 in Louisville where they will sing the full sequence of “Carmina Burana”. Then, there is Winter Fantasia in December and POPappella in the spring. They also go to state every year, which is exciting in itself. Start of the year, the students even went on a choir retreat in August.
“When we come back from fall break we will have evening rehearsals with those groups getting us all ready for the performance on that Saturday. So pretty much every night that week we come back from break we will have a night time rehearsal over in Louisville with the other groups. The first one is just with the choirs then the rest will be choirs and orchestra,” said Hampton.
“Mrs. Hampton gives us so many opportunities like going to Rome and going to the choir retreats and going out of state or out of town to sing and all these different opportunities. It’s fun to be able to be a well-rounded student in that way,” said junior vocalist Eden Gore.
FC’s very first fall festival will invite students, family, siblings and more to join them and watch them perform with all the practice and dedication they’ve put towards making their voices heard. If listened closely, some say they can hear new, eager voices singing loud amongst the hundreds of students here tonight.
“We’re going to reminisce about how we used to be in choir in middle school and used to look up to acapella and now we’re in acapella and trying to sing well for the middle schoolers,” said Gore.