Wheeling Park has had the honor of sending multiple students this year to represent the high school at West Virginia’s American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Each student worked hard, and had to audition to be accepted. Through diligence and rehearsal, 15 students scored high enough individually to attend this prestigious choral conference. There, the students have the opportunity to work diligently with other students from all over West Virginia, and perform a concert together to demonstrate each students excellence in choral singing. Wheeling parks students have had a weekend full of workshops, networking, and of course — singing!
One student who has attended, Mia Holmes, has attended the conference three times previously, and now has attended a fourth conference her senior year. Mia loves choir, and thoroughly enjoys putting herself out there to succeed in the arts.
“My favorite part is meeting our director because, out of the six songs that we sing every year, one of the musicians who wrote a song, is actually our director. So it’s really cool to be able to sing a song that they have arranged and have them get it to sound how they wrote it to be. Everyone who I have met has been such a nice person, so it was really awesome to meet them,” said Holmes.
Making connections and forming new relationships is not the only perk of attending this prestigious conference. Students also get the opportunity to collaborate with other members of choirs around the state.
Wheeling Park’s own choral director, Mrs. Christi Greenwood, has been taking students to ACDA for more than 12 years.
“It is a conference where students from across the state who have worked hard get to show off their stuff and work with master clinicians… Once students make it, and they go there and they are working with another choir director and it all ‘clicks’,” said Mrs. Greenwood.
By getting to see each student experience new direction and learn more from composers, Mrs. Greenwood enjoys watching her students learn in new ways. By working so diligently to make it to this conference, we can see that each student in attendance has earned their place among the many great choral singers of West Virginia.
“The conductor this year was the master of the American Spiritual so they sang a couple of spirituals and did very stylistically well. All the kids loved him and it was fantastic,” said Greenwood.
The American Choral Directors Association in West Virginia is a choir conference full of opportunity for students who excel in the vocal arts. The students representing Wheeling Park High school are sure to have had a successful weekend, and concert. It is clear that this annual weekend of choral collaboration has brought immense joy to all who have attended, and many plan to audition again next year. This opportunity has grown to be a beloved tradition among Park choir members, and many cannot wait for their next chance to collaborate with all of West Virginia’s singers. A happy congratulations to all who have attended, and good luck for those auditioning next year!
