$5,000 prize for a voice? A performance at Wells Fargo Center? It seems like a dream, handed to you just for singing a song. But hours, days, and weeks went into a two minute Christmas carol. Since the beginning of the year, seventh and eighth graders have woken up super early to be at school at 7:20 AM every Tuesday and Thursday. They also occasionally rehearse during I/E.
Ms. Callaghan directs the Select Choir. She was inspired to create the group because she loved the opportunity to sing in a select ensemble in middle school. The process to get into the Select Choir was a short audition where you had to sing pitch-matching patterns and short music excerpts in harmony. Also, everyday is fun; you sing and can be with your friends. Sometimes there’s even donuts! But it’s really early in the morning and the songs have a time limit.
The choir competition was hosted by B101 Philly radio station. A bunch of schools submitted a Christmas song and eventually they were narrowed down to the final nine schools!
The semi-finals, all you could do was hope and vote. There were three days of voting, each day three songs by three schools were played on the radio. You could only vote from about 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM each day. Making it to semi-finals is a big accomplishment, as not every school who submits an entry is selected for the radio.
Honestly, the system seems to be rigged. You can vote as many times as you want! All you had to do was put in your email, choose what school you’re voting for, refresh the page, and repeat!
Sadly, out of the three schools competing on Wednesday 11/29, WVMS Select Choir did not win. Perhaps if we were playing on a different day with different people we would have won, but we had a lot of great feedback from both staff members, family members, students and even strangers who heard us on the radio.
So, congratulations to Ms. Callaghan and the students of the Select Choir for trying their best and making some great music! There’s always next year, and I think they did a good job regardless.
