Choir captures first place

The Sisters Middle School Choir, under the direction of Tara MacSween, captured first place at the Central Oregon Music Educators Association (COMEA) Middle School Choir Festival, which was held on Wednesday, April 12. Eight middle schools were represented and Sisters earned the highest average score overall.

The choir performed three songs at the competition: “JeLe Vous Diray,” “Shenandoah” and “A Festive Gloria.”

“‘Shenandoah’ has a lot of dynamic contrast,” said MacSween. “I think (the choir) had the best performance of this piece at the competition. Their phrasing was at a very advanced level and well beyond a typical middle school choir. They were also complimented on their French in the song ‘JeLe Vous Diray.’”

The choir’s final selection was a Latin piece entitled, “A Festive Gloria.”

“At the end of the song the choir breaks into seven parts and they tuned it perfectly,” said MacSween.

“It’s a very powerful ending to the song and adjudicator Peter Rob was very impressed. He said the last chord blew him away.”

MacSween said, “One of the adjudicators commented he’d never heard a middle school choir sound like that. I’m so proud I just can’t stand it.”

The students have past experience with Rob, though they hadn’t met him.

“Peter Rob composed a song that we do as a warm up all the time and the kids were excited to make that connection,” said MacSween.

After the competition MacSween said the choir spent a lot of time talking about why they had finished with such high scores.

“It really came down to the fact that they rehearse at a really high level and are able to dig into musical skills much higher than what you’d expect at the middle school level,” said MacSween.