Mack Lyon Middle School Choir Performs At CCSD Festival

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

The Mack Lyon Middle School Choir performed at the Clark County School District choir festival on Wednesday, Mar 21 at UNLV. The growing choir program has a total of thirty-three young singers in it, up from twenty last year and twelve the year before that.

As the choir continues to grow in size, their sound and their ability levels have grown as well. Instructor Walter White was pleased with how the group performed at the festival.

The choir performed three pieces for a panel of judges. White said that he chose the pieces very carefully to showcase the choir’s range of abilities. The choir began a-cappella with “Medieval Gloria.” A gospel-type number followed called “Sing for Joy.” Finally, a song called “Three Quotes by Mark Twain” rounded out the performance.

The last piece was both the kids and the judge’s favorite. It was based on three famous quotes by the American author. These included “It’s better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”; “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything”; and finally “My mama had a lot of trouble with me and I think she enjoyed it.”
“This was the kids favorite piece by far,” White said. “They got such a kick out of it. The judges were just full of compliments on how the kids did on it.”

The judges rewarded the kids with an overall score of Excellent, with one judge even awarding the festival’s highest score of Superior.

The second phase, the Criterion Reference Assessment, was judged on how the group did with scales and arpeggios. White said that he was particularly proud of how the students did in this phase because it was skills that the older students had taught the younger ones. White had the kids from last year’s group help the new choir members drill in scales and arpeggios every day. And he had them lead this phase in front of the judges as well.

White was very happy when the score for this phase was an overall Superior.
White was proud of the hard work his choir had put in and was pleased to see their efforts rewarded with the success.
“The judge who came in to do our clinic was humming one of the songs we had sung,” White said.

“That’s a great compliment.”