Most of the participating students at the choir Solo and Small Ensemble Festival got very high markings. Choir’s solo and ensemble took place on March 1 at Parkway Central High School. They are ranked one to five, with one being the highest ranking. Even though the students went for different reasons, they all took something useful from it when they left.
Choir teacher Gabrielle Pierle said that she was very proud of how all her students did at the Solo and Small Ensemble Festival.
“I was so pumped about their scores. We ended up having seven vocalists go and sing solos. All of our singers took home ones and twos, which was fantastic,” Pierle said.
Although Pierle said that most of her students who went to festival have vocal teachers, she did her part to help each of her students feel comfortable and prepared to sing.
To earn their degree, every choir teacher must learn how to sing in different languages, even if they can’t speak or understand those languages. Because Pierle knows how to sing in different languages, she is able to pass that knowledge down to her students. A lot of the performers sang one song in English and another song in a language of their choosing. Even if the student couldn’t fully speak or understand the language, Pierle made sure that they could sing it to their best ability.
“As a choir teacher, part of our degree when you go to college for music, especially vocal music is you have to take a diction class. In that class, we’re taught… to read and speak Latin, Italian, French and German,” Pierle said.
“Now, I don’t know those languages. I can’t translate them, but if I see German, I know how to speak it, or if I see Latin, I know what the rules are of the language, so we can speak it. I am able to help [students]with that,” Pierle said.
One of the seven vocalists that went to Solo and Small Ensemble Festival was senior Shekinah Annin. She received an exemplary rating, a one. Annin said that her hard work paid off, after receiving her fourth exemplary rating in four years.
“I got a one, an exemplary, [and] I’m proud of myself. I’ve gotten ones for all four years,” Annin said.
Although Pierle helped her with her songs, Annin relied on her personal vocal teacher as well. Annin sang two songs, one in German, the other in French, because she felt the need to challenge herself for her senior year. When asked how she prepared for this, she said she relied on listening to professional vocalists sing the song and her vocal teacher to correct anything she might have missed.
“I’ll listen to someone sing it, like an actual professional, and I’ll kind of listen to that person sing it over and over again.Then I can kind of pick up on what the correct pronunciation is and everything ” Annin said.
Annin also prepared for festival by practicing her songs over and over again with her accompanist, Lisa Johnson.
“We also have to practice with our accompanist, who is our personal piano player. So I would prepare my two songs, and then once I learned them, I would also practice with my accompanist,” Annin said.
Another student that went to Solo and Small Ensemble Festival and received a one was junior Jackson Schertzer. He sang two songs in different languages as well, one in English and the other in French. He relied heavily on his vocal teacher, who helped him not only practice, but also select his music. .
“[My voice teacher is] the one who picked out my literature and everything, and she works with me, once a week,” Schertzer said.
Schertzer also talked about learning the songs on his own. He said that practicing as well as working on pronunciation is what helped him learn the new songs in a timely fashion. .
“If I were to prepare again, I would just sing it over and over again, listen to it, see how they pronounce it, pronounce all the words, and eventually find a flow, and it just gets easier from there,” Schertzer said.
Most of the vocalists that went to Solo and Small Ensemble Festival worked hard to prepare, and walked away with ones and twos. All of the students had adults to lean on, whether that be a vocal teacher, Mrs. Pierle, or their accompanist.
“I think that they just did an amazing job and I’m really proud of them. They worked really hard,” Pierle said.
Annin, Schertzer, senior Alivia Valdez, and sophomore Julia Worley will travel to the MSHSAA State Solo and Small Ensemble Festival on May 2 at the University of Missouri – Columbia.
