Every year the choir department does a project towards the end of the year called Songs You’ll Never Sing. Every student in the choir department is required to do this project, and it is a great learning experience as a growing musician. These performances will be happening all of next week, May 13-17, all day long as students perform either by themselves or with a partner in front of Mrs. Bird, Erie’s choir director, a panel of guest judges, and their class of students.
The project ‘Songs You’ll Never Sing’ means that the students sing a musical theatre piece that you would never get casted for in the real world. This could mean that you sing a song from a show where the character is of the opposite gender, a different race, or a younger age. The song has to be from a show off of broadway. The students choose a song after doing research on a few songs, then they must get two copies of their chosen song. One for themselves, and one for our school’s pianist Mrs. Midyett. The students are then expected to prepare their song outside of class. They have two rehearsals each, in class, with Mrs. Midyett so that they can perfect their song and understand how it fits with the piano, but most of it is prepared on their own. The song must be memorized by their performance.
Once the performance time rolls around, the kids perform in front of their class, Mrs. Bird, and a panel of guest judges brought in that usually consists of alumni and other professional choral directors. They then have the panel judges tell them what they did well, as well as work with them on what they could do better in a little workshop after the performance. This project is a great opportunity for choir kids. It allows them to learn how to prepare a song outside of class and work with a pianist on their own. It also gives them an opportunity to sing solo which helps with nerves and knowing how to perform, and they get feedback personally on what they could work on with their solo voice. It also teaches them how to have time management and how to practice on their own.
Junior Colby Arlington said that he loves Songs You’ll Never Sing because “It gets you out of your comfort zone, and that always increases your ability to do anything in life.” The performances will begin next week so if you would like to come by and watch a few, stop by the choir room!