Show Choir Festival to show off area high schools' musical talents
Megan Burns
Issue date: 11/24/09 Section: A&E
The Show Choir Festival was held all day Monday, Nov. 23 at Butler. The Butler Headliners, Chamber Singers and Butler Ladies helped host the 32nd annual Festival. The theme for this year's festival is "The Road."
This year's clinician will be Stephan Todd. Todd is originally from Mitchell, South Dakota. There he was a four year member of Friend de Coup, the South Dakota All-State and Honors Choirs. He holds a BFA in Musical Theater and a minor in dance.
Todd has been privileged to star in an abundance of regional theaters all over the nation in shows such as "Chicago," "Footloose," "Titanic," "Forever Plaid," "Pippin," "Cabaret," "Tick Tick Boom!," "And the World Goes Around," "Songs for a New World" and "Singing in the Rain." He has also been featured in the Broadway National Tour of "Kiss Me, Kate."
Other guests will include many teachers and instructors from around the state and 2009 Miss Kansas Becki Ronen will be announcing for the choral performances.
Each high school coming will get to spend some time working with Todd, to improve the overall sound and feel of their choir groups. They will each get a time slot for performing their enhanced pieces.
Remington High School will start off the day bright and early at 7a.m. Students will start with warm-up and performance with each session being twenty minutes in length. Then a larger group composed of multiple schools will do a session in choreography.
The Butler Headliners will perform from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. The final high school performances will be from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
The 14 high schools that will be performing at the Festival include Remington, Bluestem, El Dorado, Wichita West, Augusta, Andover Central, Neodesha, Junction City, Clear Water, Phillipsburg, Circle, Fort Scott, Parsons and Blue Valley. Two high schools that will also be attending are Wichita South and Labette County.
There will also be special interest sessions available. Some of them include stretch/focus, Barbershop by the Smorgaschords, Sweet Adeline's by the Noteables, Salsa dancing, hip-hop dancing and auditioning tips.
Students can win door prizes for their efforts, but Butler choral instructor Vallerie Lippoldt Mack, hopes they get more out of it.
"The point is to motivate the high school musicians to go back to their programs, and make a bigger difference in their ensembles," Mack said.
This year's clinician will be Stephan Todd. Todd is originally from Mitchell, South Dakota. There he was a four year member of Friend de Coup, the South Dakota All-State and Honors Choirs. He holds a BFA in Musical Theater and a minor in dance.
Todd has been privileged to star in an abundance of regional theaters all over the nation in shows such as "Chicago," "Footloose," "Titanic," "Forever Plaid," "Pippin," "Cabaret," "Tick Tick Boom!," "And the World Goes Around," "Songs for a New World" and "Singing in the Rain." He has also been featured in the Broadway National Tour of "Kiss Me, Kate."
Other guests will include many teachers and instructors from around the state and 2009 Miss Kansas Becki Ronen will be announcing for the choral performances.
Each high school coming will get to spend some time working with Todd, to improve the overall sound and feel of their choir groups. They will each get a time slot for performing their enhanced pieces.
Remington High School will start off the day bright and early at 7a.m. Students will start with warm-up and performance with each session being twenty minutes in length. Then a larger group composed of multiple schools will do a session in choreography.
The Butler Headliners will perform from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. The final high school performances will be from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
The 14 high schools that will be performing at the Festival include Remington, Bluestem, El Dorado, Wichita West, Augusta, Andover Central, Neodesha, Junction City, Clear Water, Phillipsburg, Circle, Fort Scott, Parsons and Blue Valley. Two high schools that will also be attending are Wichita South and Labette County.
There will also be special interest sessions available. Some of them include stretch/focus, Barbershop by the Smorgaschords, Sweet Adeline's by the Noteables, Salsa dancing, hip-hop dancing and auditioning tips.
Students can win door prizes for their efforts, but Butler choral instructor Vallerie Lippoldt Mack, hopes they get more out of it.
"The point is to motivate the high school musicians to go back to their programs, and make a bigger difference in their ensembles," Mack said.
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