WHY MUSIC?

This is an article written by a former Coloma Choir director, Pamela Pierson, who is currently teaching at West Ottawa High School in Holland, MI. I feel that this article really describes why we love music and is a great final message to the end of our school year.

As we go through this difficult time in our nation, I think about the role that music has played in our response to the Sep. 11 crisis. We have been regaled with many versions of heartfelt patriotic songs and the power of the human voice has been very dominant in helping us to react to the crisis in many ways. This reaction brings to mind the question,

“Why Teach Music??”

Music Is A Science – It is precise, specific, and it demands exact acoustics. A musician’s score is a chart, a graph that indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once with absolute control of time.

Music Is Mathematical – It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.

Music Is A Foreign Language – Most of the terms are in Italian, German, French, the notation is certainly not English, but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music are the most complete and universal language.

Music Is Physical Education – It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheeks and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.

Music Is All These Things But Mostly Music Is Art – It allows a human being to take all these dry, technical, different techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate; feeling, emotion; call it what you will. THAT IS WHY WE TEACH MUSIC. Not because we expect you to major in music, Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life. Not so you can have fun. But….So you will be human. So you will recognize beauty. So you will be sensitive. So you will get closer to an infinite beyond this world. So that you will have something to cling to. So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more goodness – in short, more life. Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live? This is why we love music.

- Pam Pierson

Much News in Coloma

The Lakeland Fine Arts Festival was a hit in Coloma last Thursday! Gold Company opened the festival with a wonderful performance and our students all performed well at the concert in the evening. A shout-out goes to our amazing students who were wonderful helpers throughout the day.

Junior, Heather Leonard, just participated in her first State Solo and Ensemble Festival in Allendale, MI on Saturday and received and overall division II rating! We are very proud of her and know that she will continue to do great things while here in Coloma.

Five Junior High students will participate in Junior High Solo and Ensemble Festival this Saturday at Brandywine High School: Caroline Arny, Katie DeRosa, Hayley Girard, Breanna Przybylinski, and Kersten Strunk.

The High School Concert Choir and Varsity Singers will be the guest choirs at Lake Michigan College's Spring Choral Concert on Friday, April 23rd at 7:30pm on the Mendel Center Mainstage. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students.

SWMVF Parts Online

Hello High School Choir Students!!
Your SWMVF parts are available on our website. You know how to get there, if you don't email me at: colomachoirs@gmail.com and I will guide you.
Have a great few days off!
-Mrs. Selvidge

Tis the Season for Choral Music!

Hello everyone!
Our choral students have been VERY busy working on music for choral festival and solo & ensemble. With that in mind, I thought that I would give you a little update on their schedule for the next few weeks. High School Concert Choir took a well deserved break last Friday and traveled to Western Michigan University to see the vocal jazz ensembles, Gold Company and GCII perform for their 32nd annual concert at Miller Auditorium.
The students were able to hear Gold Company "Behind the Scenes" as well as learn about a 12-Bar Blues pattern and snapping on beats 2 and 4! They were even serenaded by former American Idol contestant, Matt Giraud! It was a life changing event for many of our students.
Have a great week and I hope to see many of you at the concert tomorrow!
-Mrs. Selvidge

Here are the performance events for the next few weeks:

Thursday, February 18th at 7pm
Pre-Festival Choir Concert
Junior High Women's Ensemble and High School Concert Choir
(required for JH/HS)

Saturday, February 20th from 8:00a-3:00p
High School Vocal Solo and Ensemble
Five soloists and four duets

Tuesday, March 2nd
District Choral Festival at The Chapel, St. Joseph
Junior High Women's Ensemble 9:30am performance
High School Concert Choir 10:30am performance

Thursday, March 18th
Southwestern Michigan Vocal Festival at Miller Auditorium, Kalamazoo
High School Concert Choir, all day event
(required)

Welcoming the new year!

Hello everyone
Thank you so much for attending our Winter Collage Concerts this past December. We were extremely happy with the performances by our amazing students and with the large amount of friend and family attendees.

MIDDLE SCHOOL CHOIR NEWS
At this time the Middle School choirs are working towards two great goals: reading music without the assistance of a piano or having the teacher sing it to them (sight-reading) and using expression in our performances. Our newest addition to the Middle School choral program is our first ever Middle School choir musical. The choir students have put their noses to the grindstone to produce and perform, "Disney Movie Magic" on April 30th and May 1st in the High School Auditorium. This performance will give the students an opportunity to show off their individual talents as well as learn how to work together to produce a show.
**Auditions for solos are January 25th and 27th during choir**

JUNIOR HIGH and HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR NEWS
Our Junior High and High School choirs are working hard at refreshing their sightreading skills, music theory skills and learning new music for District Choral Festival (during the first week of March at The Chapel in St. Joe). Last year, the choirs made tremendous strides and received Good (red) and Excellent (blue) ratings. Keep up the great work, Comets!

In other High School news, we have ten groups who have signed up to perform at Solo and Ensemble Festival on February 20th at SMC.

The High Schools students are also preparing new music to perform at the Southwestern Michigan Vocal Festival on March 18th at Western Michigan University, which will be sung with a thousand other choral students from Michigan. It is a challenge and an honor; our students look forward to this event every year.

Thank you for reading! We get very busy this time of year but I hope to keep you posted on all events in the near future.

-Mrs. Selvidge