Choral MPA 2015

Yesterday, 60 students from Fletcher Senior High School traveled to Mandarin High School for Choral MPA.  MPA stands for "Music Performance Assessment" and this is our "district sing-off" so to speak.  Just as sports teams have their district play-offs, so does the Florida Vocal Association have their district festival.  I took both of my advanced choirs to festival yesterday and was so pleased with the way they represented our school and our choral program.  These are some of the finest young men and women at our school and I am so blessed to have them in my program.  They are smart, witty and talented.  They can also sing!!

It was a pleasure to prepare for Choral MPA this year.  I loved the songs and they worked well for both choirs.  I am sometimes frustrated by the FVA requirement of having to choose one of your performance songs from the FVA list or the Texas List.  I felt like I chose well this year and there was a nice contrast between the songs.  Ladies Chamber Chorus sang, "Cantate Domino" by Giuseppi Pitonni and "Grace" arranged by Mark Hayes.  Vocal Ensemble sang, "Ching-a-Ring Chaw" by Aaron Copland and "Stars I Shall Find" by Victor C. Johnson.

Each chorus prepares two songs and must sight-sing for a cumulative grade.  The rating scale is a 5-point scale - Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent and Superior.  The judges were very consistent in their ratings for each choir.  All three judges gave ratings of "Excellent" this year.  Ladies Chamber Choir nailed their sight-singing example and received a "Superior" rating.  Vocal Ensemble's was a bit more challenging and they received an "Excellent" rating.

I could not be more proud of my singers for showing up to sing yesterday.  As the old saying goes, "An Excellent is an Excellent!"  Students - hold your heads high and continue working.  Our Spring concert will be awesome!!

Combined Choirs of

Duncan U. Fletcher Senior High School

Neptune Beach, FL

 FHS Ladies Chamber Chorus

FHS Vocal Ensemble

Until next time...

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

Ah, yes....The Spring Musical. 

It's that time of year again where the dividing line between Chorus Student and Drama Student becomes blurred.  Because it is a musical and not an actual play, lots of my chorus students audition and many of them make the cast.

This year, I had five chorus kids who played leading roles in the musical "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" If you attended a Catholic school as a kid, this musical would definitely resonate with you.  You would laugh your socks off!! The rest of us get most of it, but not all of it.  We don't have the background knowledge or the first-hand experience, but we can appreciate it for what it is - good musical theatre!!

Tylor, Jacob, Jesse, Rachel, Jonathan

The Spring Musical is a collaborative effort between a very talented group of people:

Tina Fallon - Director

Shelli Long - Musical Director

Cindy Kidder - Choreographer

Tom Ming - Technical Director

Tom Fallon - Technical Support/Set Design/Props

Congratulations on another fine Fletcher High School Spring Musical production!!

Until next time...