GLEE National Anthem

Hey Chorus! Here is the national anthem performed by the cast of GLEE in the World Series that we talked about in our last chorus class just in case you missed it on TV(like I did!)

What do you think?

Night on Broadway Concert

Night on Broadway Concert

Featuring NHS Chorus and Band

October 21, 2009

NHS Auditorium

PS 22: My latest obsession!

Check this video out..Its a public school chorus in the middle of NYC (the school is called PS 22). These are 5th graders in what looks like an after school chorus program.. Chorus, this is what I'm always talking about when I say "sing like you love to sing!" Look at their faces, their expressions, their tone qualities..Its very hard to spot any kids in these videos who are not loving every second of what they are doing. Look them up on Youtube, they are called PS 22 Chorus. Many of their songs are "pop songs" but they do have some cool actual choral music too. Enjoy!

Welcome Back Everyone!

Thought I'd welcome you back with my new favorite Youtube video! Chorus, no more complaining about not being able to hit notes after you watch this :) . Enjoy! (His name is Nick Pitera if you'd like to see more!)

To all of my readers,
I hope you all have a wonderful summer. I know I already have a busy one planned!

I am leaving for my first cruise ever (to the Bahamas) on Monday! (Cross your fingers that I don't get sea sick!!!) i'll have to post some photos when I get home. Then the week I come home I start taking my grad school classes again. I'm taking 2 classes at Rhode Island College, my home away from home. Also, my friend Mae is teaching at a music camp in Maine so I'll be taking over her flute studio at the Grand Piano for a month. I met a couple of the students yesterday and I think it will be a good time. Once Mae comes home, we'll also be working on a chamber music program with the flute students at the Grand Piano, working with flute duets, trios, quartets, and more!

For those of you who have not heard, I will be teaching both chorus and band at both NHS and NMS next year. I'm very excited about starting fresh in the fall. I'm sure many things will be different for both me and for you and I'm looking forward to working together to have a great music department! I hope all of you find a way to make some music this summer and get ready for a great year in 2009-2010!

If any of you are in the mood to paint and clean (who isn't???) we will be painting the music room at the high school on both June 29 and June 30 at 12:30. (Because of that grad school schedule I can't get here any earlier which stinks!) Lets start of the year with an awesome-looking room!

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!!!!!

GRADUATION!!!

Just a reminder to all chorus members:

We are singing at NHS graduation this Friday night (June 5th)!!! Graduation starts at 7 pm but please be at the Comcast Center stage area by 6:30 pm. (Account for traffic!) We are wearing all black (pants or dresses or skirts and shirts, plus black shoes!)

Graduation rehearsal is during the day as your all should know by now. Make sure you have your permission slip so you can actually come with us! We are leaving at 11:00 a.m. Please meet me in the auditorium at 10:45! (Right after 2nd period)Bring something to eat because we will be there until the end of the school day and we'll have a lot of down time.

To our seniors- we miss you already! Congrats and good luck on everything in your future!

Norton High School Music Department Spring Concert
TONIGHT
May 21st, 7 pm
NHS Auditorium

See you there!

(Chorus members, be ready to warm up by 6:30 pm)

Chorus! Unwritten

Hey Chorus People, here is our arrangement of Unwritten and the Natasha Bedingfield arrangement. Please try to ignore the choreography in the first video (haha)and just listen. They are singing in 5 parts, just like us, although they do have microphones so its a different experience.
How is singing this song as a solo (aka Natasha Bedingfield) different than singing as a chorus? What do we need to keep in mind when singing as a chorus, rather than singing solo?

Chorus Reminder:

Please remember to bring your music to school with you tomorrow (Wednesday) for Can't Hurry Love, especially if you are not in chorus class. We are recording with Doug in the Mac Lab and it would be much easier if we were not sharing music with other people, etc. Please be prepared so we can get this done as quickly as possible! Lyrics, lyrics, lyrics!!! :)

Congratulations...

...to our seniors in chorus! Our chorus seniors have been receiving acceptance letters to great schools recently and we are very proud of all of you! I can't wait to hear where you all decide to go! :)

Chorus HW

Just a quick reminder: Some of you need to get your grades wayyyy up and report cards will be out before you know it! Now is the time to really push through til the end of the year with effort. Bring your music, focus hard, use your pencil and smile!!!
Also, check out edline for your listening/practicing homework-due on Monday!! (Or Tuesday if you are an every-other-day kid)

Thanks and have a SUPER weekend! :)

Kids songs?

Chorus assignment: Watch the following videos and comment to answer my questions below!









Looking on Youtube, I found several examples of "children's songs" sung by high school students. Some parts good, some parts..not so much. What do you like? What don't you like? As you know, we are performing for the LGN students on March 3rd. What can we add to our own performance after watching these videos?

iTalk

Hi again,

Just thought some of you might be interested in the following recording device.

This is a photo of an iTalk. Those of you in chorus may have noticed me recording your singing on here during rehearsals. Mr. Barth introduced me to the iTalk and it is great for recording podcasts or recording yourself when practicing (or even in concert). All you have to do is plug it into the bottom of your ipod, click on button, and it will begin recording. You can then upload the recordings to itunes and make CDs of yourself if you want, or just keep it on your ipod. Some of you have tried to buy this in stores found that they are really expensive so you didn't buy one. ($50-70) However, I got mine for less than $13 on EBAY (and the Ebay store I bought it from had a lot). Brand new, in the plastic packaging. Not all types of iTalks (they come in iTalk sync, i Talk, iTalk Pro..etc) work with all iPods so do your research first but you should be able to find one that works. Just a thought for those of you who really want to be critical about your own singing.

Epoch of Norton Chorus

Hi everyone,

We are starting our new concert season for the Epoch Chorus. We can always use more high school singers to come with us and rehearse with the senior citizens. Its a pretty fun time usually and we can also give you community service hours. Please take a look to your right where you will find a calendar for all chorus events, which includes Epoch rehearsals/concerts.

Please comment and let me know if you have any ideas of song selections for the Epoch Chorus! :) Good luck on exams everyone!

A couple things...

Welcome back, I hope everyone had a great vacation!

Just as a reminder, there is a Tri-M meeting on Tuesday, January 13th right after school. Come with some fundraising/other ideas!

SEMSBA registration is due on January 16th. Many of you have decided to audition was great, but we have to make it official! I am available afterschool at NHS on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for extra help. I am available afterschool at NMS on Wednesdays and Fridays. All recordings are on EdLine. Work hard and it should pay off!

Chorus Midterm: test questions and study guides are due by this Monday! (Which means Friday if you are the class that doesn't have me on Monday.)

WINTER CONCERT TONIGHT!!!!

The NHS Winter Concert is tonight at 7 pm. I hope to see everyone there for some good times.

Chorus: Remember to wear all black: pants, dress, shoes, skirt, socks, everything...No spaghetti straps, or if you do, put a sweater on. Classy, please. Be there at 6:15 sharp! Make sure your music is in the right order too!... I think thats it! You've all worked so so hard and you will be great!

I'm so excited!

Congratulations!

I forgot to add this is my last post but...
Congratulations to all of our new inductees to the Tri-M Music Honor Society:
Sarah T.
Emily J.
Anthony M.
Tim W.
Mike K.
Chrissy I.

Also, thank you to all of our current members who either performed or brought refreshments and decorations (or did all 3!)... Your performances last night at the induction recital were great and we hope you had a good time!

Just a reminder: The induction rehearsal is December 10th afterschool and the induction is December 11th at 7 pm. Please remember white shirts and black pants with black shoes!!

Anddddd...WINTER CONCERT on DECEMBER 10th at 7 PM. woohooooo!!!!!!

Getting in the holiday spirit..

I figured I should update my blog and get it in the holiday spirit, hence the red this month instead of my usual purple.

My question for you is: What is your favorite holiday song and why? Do you have a particular memory associated with the song?

My favorite holiday song is "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and here's why: I LOVE LOVE LOVE the original Home Alone movies (the ones with Macauley Culkin, not the other goofy kid). They were my absolute favorite when I was a kid and I watched them every Thanksgiving night with my mom, plus of course on DVD. I especially like the first Home Alone because it was very clever and the other 3 Home Alone movies pretty much followed the same premise. I liked the 2nd one because I used to go to NYC with my family every year to see a musical and I liked seeing all of the landmarks I remember as a kid. I even had a poster that my parents got me that had a map of the McAllister house with all of Kevin's traps in each room.

Anyways, back to my point. my favorite scene is when Kevin makes it look like his family is having a party so the burglars don't bother trying to rob them. He does this by rigging up mannequins to ropes which he pulls back and forth, making them dance to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." From the street, the two idiot burglars see the silhouettes of adults rocking out so they end up leaving....to return the next night..Every time I hear, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" I think of my favorite holiday movie! I even had the NMS Chorus sing this song at my first concert in Norton :)

So how about you? What is your favorite holiday song and why?

Wang Theatre Trip!

Hello,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break, I certainly did.

Yesterday, the NHS Chorus took a trip to the Wang Center in Boston to see the musical, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The chorus also performed before the show as the crowds came in. We sang up on the balcony over-looking the people below and performed mainly holiday selections. We had a good time and got a great reaction from the audiences.

The musical was great and I would recommend it to all ages (its playing at the Wang all month!) I think it was unanimous that everyone on our trip loved the little girl who played Cindy Lou Who; she had a fantastic voice! The person who played the dog, Max, was also great.

I've added some photos if any of you chorus people who like to copy them for yourselves. E-mail me if you want the full resolution versions :) (Thanks to Mrs. Jestus for working my camera!)

A big thank you to all of our chaperones: Mrs. Kitchen, Mrs. Jestus, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Chisholm, and Dr. Ansay! You were all great!

The next big event we have coming up is our winter concert on December 10th, at 7 pm, in the NHS Auditorium. Hope to see you there!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

In other news, congratulations to both Julia Ariola and David Aranjo. Julia, grade 11, was accepted into the SE Senior District Orchestra on violin, and was recommended for All-State. David, grade 9, was accepted into the SE Senior District Chorus, and was recommended for All-State. Great job guys!

Finally, our chorus trip is this Saturday, November 29th. Please be at Norton High School before 8:30 a.m. We are wearing ALL BLACK-no sneakers please! The Wang Center is a nice place so please dress accordingly! Don't forget your music (by the way, someone left their music on stage on Monday so I grabbed it..)

See you on Saturday! If you have any questions, please email me so I can help you out!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!