Vocal music
director Dalton Phillips prepares for rehearsal with the Mansfield Senior High
symphonic choir on Thursday. Some members were absent or participating in
Academic Challenge. Mansfield Senior High School’s symphonic choir demonstrated “a tremendous amount of growth” this year to achieve a rating of “excellent” in recent competition sponsored by the Ohio Music Education Association.
The District
Large Group Contest was held March 15 at Ashland High School.
“I am incredibly proud of my students for showing a great deal of confidence and poise last Friday night,” said director Dalton Phillips. “I am so excited to see what the future brings for these talented singers.”
The 25-member choir, which includes students in grades 9 through 12, performed a three-song set that included “Nelly Bly,” arranged by Jack Halloran; “Gentle Annie,” arranged by Dennis Eliot, and “Ain’t Got Time to Die (Ain-a That Good News?” arranged by Philip Kern.
After their performance the choir also completed a four-part, sight-reading component. The group scored an “excellent” rating, the second highest, across the board.
“For those who aren’t in the know, sight-reading is the process of using music theory knowledge in order to read a piece of music you have never seen before,” Phillips said. “The judges’ comments were very encouraging about being on the right track to reach that top score (superior) and eventually qualify for the state contest.
“The choir has gone through a tremendous amount of growth this year. Many students in the group did not think of themselves as musically literate at the beginning of the school year. After a season of working toward our goal of Large Group Contest they were able to collectively achieve the second-highest rating in sight-reading.”
Choir members include Maggy Allred, Brianne Blevins, Brookelynn Brown, Daisjah Brown, NyAzia Carter, Donavon Chatman-Manns, Ethan Crowley, Brandon Dixon, Micah Gillum, Darnell Hawkins an D’Andria Jones.
Also, Owyn Langston,
Aneesa McGregor, Samantha Prater, Haillie Schaub, Emberly Schaub-Hurt, Mason
Sheldon, Theo (Callo) Snyder, Olivia Snyder, Trent Spencer, Reese Vaught,
Gerald Vega, Lauren Whitson, Aisia Whitt and Destiny Witte.