Dale Morgan believes there are many talented singers at St. Charles East and North high schools, but academic and graduation requirements and other student activities can make it difficult to recruit singers into the school’s choir program.

Morgan, the North choir director, hopes the schools’ first annual St. Charles Choir Festival, which debuted Saturday morningjlacdan 11/1/08  at North, will encourage more incoming high school students to join the choral programs.

“There are some extraordinarily talented kids in the middle school (programs),” Morgan said. “And we want to keep them a part of the program. The opportunity is there for students and we want to make it available to them all. They’re going to be scientists, mathematicians and they need to take (other academic classes). There is a need to take those classes, and unfortunately it often conflicts with music options.”
Students from the high schools’ chorales hosted a clinic to work with eighth-graders from Thompson, Wredling and Haines middle schools and followed with a 30-minute concert in front of parents and community members.

“We hope it teaches them better tone quality, to be more dynamic and be better musicians overall,” East Choir director Jim McCullough said.

Middle school students had a warm up time, a feedback session from each music director, and then were divided into sections during the two-hour workshop.

“I could hear the differences in the voices of the people around me and it made me sing more confidently,” said Thompson eighth-grader Taylor Gorczynski. “It reminded me of how much fun singing is and how much I enjoy it.”

Michelle Rybski, choir director at Thompson, said the choir festival will not only spur interest toward the choral programs, but help younger singers transition to the high school choir. The three middle school choirs combined with the high school chorales to form a massive choir of 260 students. The group sang three songs with the high schoolers: “Kyrie,” “Windsong” and “Let There Be Peace.”

“The kids at the middle school level need to see what the next step is when they get to the high school level,” Rybski said. “The quality of music and the expectations are even higher at the high school level and they need to understand why.”

Alyse Thompson, an East senior who has sang in choir since sixth grade, said school activities and athletics can make it difficult to join the school choir.

“It's really hard to continue on especially as you get older,” she said.