Choir Encourages Junior High Students to Join
Caroline Lee
Staff Writer
On Thursday, January 9, 2014, the AHS choir took a field trip to Thornton Junior High School, performing and answering questions, to recruit students for next year.
The fourth period class of approximately thirty students, walked to the junior high during sixth period and returned about fifteen minutes before the end of the AHS school day. The group sang “The Water is Wide,” “Cruella de Vil,” “In This Ancient House,” and the national anthem and also had the opportunity to team up with the Thornton choir, conducted and taught by Mr. Gershenson, or Mr. G.
“We sang a few songs that we sang at the Winter Concert and the Star Spangled Banner, which we sang at the Winter Rally,” senior Catherine Chan said. “Then, we sang a few songs with them. Mr. G gave us sheet music and we sight read the music. I think the kids were really impressed that we could sing music that we’ve never sung before using only the sheet music.”
Mr. Wong, who runs the AHS music program, has done this exchange with Thornton for both band and choir for nineteen years and believes it is important to show Thornton students what they can accomplish at AHS.
“It is good to inform the junior high students so that they know their elective options,” Mr. Wong said. “In junior high, you can only take one elective, so they think that they can only choose foreign language or music, but here they can do both.”
Members of the choir were happy with the results of their trip and could see interest from the Thornton students.
“I think we got some people interested in joining choir,” senior Lena Yen said. “They seemed mildly amused that we had to sing songs we never sang before, but I think they enjoyed our presence most of the time.”
However, just because the choir went to Thornton, does not mean that there is not room for AHS students to join as well.
“[In choir] you get to learn how to sing properly and how to harmonize and sight sing, which are really useful skills if you like singing and music in general,” Chan said. “Who doesn’t think singing with your friends isn’t fun? We do solo/ensembles each quarter, where you can decide to sing a song, any song you pick, alone or with your friends. If you’re on the fence about joining choir, just do it.”
Eagle Era 