RHS Concert Choir

I look next to me and I see the program from yesterday's school concert sitting in the trash (or rather the recycling), where I suppose it belongs, both figuratively and literally. This was the annual holiday concert, which included performances by the chamber choir (a small group of selected students), the string orchestra and symphonic orchestra, and the full 120+ member concert choir.

This has been my primary activity since entering high school, the thing I care the most about, basically. I'm a choir nerd, through and through (and hope to be one in college as well). I'm passionate about vocal music, I simply love how much it can convey both through music and words and how it can span cultures and generations. It's a shame that for the most part, you will only ever find it in an educational context, nobody pays to see professional choir concerts.

Anyway, suffice to say this last concert yesterday wasn't really worth anything beyond whatever seems to compel us to have one every year, no matter how unprepared we are. I guess there's no point in having a choir if it doesn't perform, but still. Murdering a mundane setting of some Spanish Christmas carol or the music of the Nutcracker set to the words of Jingle Bells is one thing, murdering Mendelssohn's He Watching Over Israel is quite another, and I can't see why such an unfortunate circumstance should feel so obligated to manifest itself year after bloody year.

Not that it's the students' fault. Well, I guess that's a little hard to believe when you picture our typical morning rehearsal, various altos and sopranos standing there, their arms crossed, hips cocked to one side, lips just barely moving along to the music, as if somebody forced them here with a gun to their back. But we have enough students who at least look like they want to be in choir that I feel safe saying we have the potential to be a quality ensemble. Overall it's the level of directing that's been lacking this semester.

Not that it's entirely our director's fault, either. Our entire music program has been completely upended this year. The new choir director, Mr. Smith, filled in two years ago last-minute for our old choir director, Mr. Kazmierczak, when he went on a year-long sabbatical. Mr. K returned for last year, but then permanently retired (to Florida, where else) and now Mr. Smith is back in the saddle. He is a genuinely nice person, a real musician (a pianist, DEFINITELY not a vocalist) with good taste and decent classroom skills. The problem is he either doesn’t have the experience or the talent to really teach music to a bunch of high school students. Notes and rhythms, notes and rhythms, I swear we did nothing this semester but notes and rhythms. Even a computerized midi player knows there’s more to music than notes and rhythms.

This change in the choir staff just so happened to coincide with the firing of the assistant band director for being a slut and enjoying her students’ cocks a little too much and the primary band director leaving us for one of the middle schools. The only music staff member from my freshman year who remains of the four is the orchestra director, unfortunately (what a dick). He’s also I believe twenty-nine, making him the oldest member of the music staff as well.

So in short, our choir stinks and it’s nobody’s fault. This is the program that largely inspired me to become a composer, and taught me most of what I know about voice leading and harmonization. It’s a shame to see it slide so far down in quality. Hopefully, with a few more years Mr. Smith will either leave or become more adapt at getting a better sound from his students. This is hard when the first time half of them sing is at the holiday concert itself, but getting students to cooperate is part of the job description for being a teacher, last I checked.

But I can only be so hard on Mr. Smith. Like I said, he’s a great guy, I have a lot of respect for him. He got his teaching certification in band directing when he attended Penn State as a percussionist. About how farther away from choral directing can you get? Then he attended Berkley school of music in Boston to learn how to be a songwriter, before living for a year or two as a traveling musician with various theater productions. I imagine leading a bunch of paid professionals is quite different than leading a bunch of high school students. This training has however made him an excellent resource for me personally, both for getting into college and receiving feedback on just how one goes about making a living as a musician.

Anyways, sad about the choir, happy for me since I’M A SENIOR, BITCH!!! SO LONG SUCKAZZZ!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Smith recorded the concert and perhaps I will share selections from it with you all once I have a copy of it. I'd like to start including some media into this blog, pictures, audio, video, to keep it interesting.

Tomorrow I’m going on an art field trip with my art class and my sexy as hell art teacher, which I will undoubtedly blog about tomorrow.

-Dr. M