(Ending with “Seasons of Love”. Pic cred: Ms. Lockwood.)

Singing in Senior Voice for Spring Gala!

I have always loved singing, but unfortunately, in high school, I never applied myself to the choirs or other opportunities – primarily due to focusing on academics or being too nervous. However, in DP2 I decided to join Senior Voice! It had been quite a while since I was in a choir, but I was exhilarated to be part of this ensemble.

The Spring Gala theme was movies, so we sang “Stand Up” from Harriet and “Seasons of Love” from Rent. Personally, Seasons of Love was my favorite because of the sweet message and the melody that would ring in my head all day.

The weeks leading up to Spring Gala were – truthfully – a bit confusing, as I was thrown in the middle of practise and it had been a long time since I looked at music notes, thus, I was little lost. But, with the help of Mr. Kim and my fellow members I was able to fully understand how we were singing the song.

Senior Voice became something that I looked forward to every week as it was quite fun to sing with the others, thus, I enjoyed practise highly – I only wish I joined sooner!

Prior to going up on stage for Gala, it was quite nerve-wracking, but you could feel the excitement in the air. I attempted to do some of the breathing exercises from Dr. Leigh’s CAS/SAC sessions in order to calm myself down. The thing I was mainly worried about was clapping at the wrong times for Stand Up! But actually getting up there and putting my all into singing was amazingly satisfying, and the constant practice paid off.

I think everyone did amazing, and thank you to everyone that attended!

(The Gala pamphlet. Pic cred: The author)

Learning outcomes:

• LO1 – Strength & growth
  • I think that I have shown great musical growth over my time in Senior Voice. I was able to re-familiarize myself with music notes, melodies, and just being part of a choir. 
  • I’d say that I found my strengths in backing up melody. At certain points in our songs, we had to go quite high – which was something I thought I wouldn’t be able to do – but through consistent practise of these parts I found it manageable!
  • Additionally, I’d say that I saw growth in being able to make connections with more people outside of my grade in Senior Voice and being able to work together with them up on stage.
• LO4 – Working collaboratively with others
  • There was definitely a lot of teamwork behind the scenes, we were constantly reminding each other of what notes to hit, fixing mics, and remembering when to clap to the song’s beat.
  • I believe that it was with everyone’s support that we were able to give the best possible performance in Spring Gala!