Today was our Middle School Youth Choral Festival. Groups came from the Crystal Children's Choir, Graham Middle School, Giannini Middle School, and Ochoa Middle School. After a day of singing for each other and working, we gave a concert -we sang, each chorus sang, and we all sang two numbers together: "Cantar" and "Why We Sing." When we rehearsed them, Matt asked some students to say why they sing. The first answer was "Because it makes me happy." The second was "Because I can forget anything bad that's happening." That goes for all of us!
Here's a scrapbook of our day into which we packed warmups, rehearsal, a little performance by us, preparing for the concert, lunch with the choir directors, clinics with the individual choruses and then the concert which parents, chaperones, some of our Board and others attended.
To help us with Cantar which is in Spanish, we asked some Spanish speaking volunteers to correct our pronunciation.
A warm and sunny day in San Francisco enabled us to have lunch outside and get a little air.
Our Education Director Ben Johns meets with the wonderful choir directors: Hwei-Min Lu and Miao Hsieh from the Crystal Children's Chorus, Jennifer Gaderlund from Graham Middle School, Courtney Lindl from A.P.Giannini, and Victoria Schmidt from Ochoa. The kids were extremely well prepared by these devoted teachers!
Dylan conducted a break out percussion section in the garage...
A.P. Giannini Middle School
Ochoa Middle School
Graham Middle School
The Crystal Children's Choir middle school group.
A rousing end to the day. Thanks to all the individuals and foundations who make it possible for us to do this (with special thanks to the Walter and Elise Haas Foundation and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation who fund important aspects of our education program) everyone who attended (including the chorus from Martin Luther King Middle School) and the singers and choir directors who participated. We couldn't have enjoyed it more.
Back on the road again on Monday - see you soon.
Posts
Thank you so much, Chanticleer, for working with us and helping us improve our songs today. It was an incredible experience for us!
ReplyDeleteClaire L. (Crystal Children's Choir)
What a wonderful experience. It's been a few months and the students are still talking about it!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
Courtney Lindl
A.P. Giannini Middle School