December 1, 2004

Noteworthy achievement

NMCC Treble Choir members sing together on stage for first time

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       Starting at the bottom rung of a ladder that often culminates at the area's high school choirs, members of the Treble Choir showed their family and friends what they have learned over the past nine weeks.
      The 34 third- and fourth-grade students in the non-audition choir of the Northwestern Michigan Children's Choir gave an "Informance" last Tuesday evening at the Milliken Auditorium.
      Their second time on risers and first time singing together on stage, the students, warmed up, completed a variety of vocal exercises and put movement to music. They also harmonized together on songs including "Ally Bally," "Old Bald Eagle" and "Oh, Susanna," pieces they have been learning all semester.
      The event duplicated on stage their weekly classroom, noted Dave Parrish, co-director of the Treble Choir with his wife, Mary.
      "We're working with them of four different areas of skills and building them as performers and singers," noted Parrish, who retired last year after 35 years as a teacher and administrator in the Traverse City Area Public Schools district.
      "They are learning singing skills, rehearsal skills, performance skills and music literature skills," he noted. "Tonight they will learn what it takes to get up on the risers and give a performance in February, to sing with all the other four choirs."
      Since the beginning of the semester, the students gathered every Thursday evening in the Fine Arts building on the Northwestern Michigan College campus. For 50 minutes, they work to find their head voices, learn proper posture and breathing, practice intervals, memorize lyrics and, best of all, sing.
      "I like singing because, well, it makes me joyful so when I'm like sad, I sing and get happier and happier," said Bethany Bobier, a fourth-grade student at Interlochen Community School. "I like when your voice gets really high and really low and when you put it together it sounds really cool."
      Bobier is an enthusiastic and engaged member of the Treble Choir who has enjoyed learning more songs and mastering the mechanics of singing. She especially relished her stage debut during the Informance.
      "I love going on stage because it's fun to be in a group of singers," she said.
      Parrish noted that many TCAPS elementary school students who take Treble Choir already have some experience singing, thanks to a strong elementary music program that starts in kindergarten.
      "But it's pretty varied and some of the students come with very little," he said of some homeschooled participants or students from other districts in the area.
      City resident Laura Scott has had three children in the Treble Choir over the years and currently her daughter, Michaela, is a member. Her two grown sons completed the program all the way to the highest level, the Concert Choir; her daughter, Theresa, is in the Chamber Choir.
      "The 23-year-old has a music minor, which I consider a direct result of his years in NMCC and both sang in high school choirs, again direct result of NMCC," she said.
      With two younger children, one eagerly anticipating his turn in the Treble Choir, Scott is a strong advocate for the Treble Choir and the whole Children's Choir program.
      "The instructors are like coaches, it is like being on a sports team and the commitment that goes with that," she noted. "They [her children] all love to sing and I can assure you that this would not be the case without NMCC."
      "It gets results," Scott said. "I think I even sing better just soaking it up at the practices."
      The four other choirs of the Northwestern Michigan Children's Choir program will present "A Holiday Concert" this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church on Center Road. Tickets are $8 general admission and $6 for seniors and children 12 and younger. Tickets are available at the Dennos Museum box office or at the door.