Children’s choir prepares for fifth season
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Over the past few weeks the weather has been slowly starting to cool off, a sure sign that fall is on its way. It’s also an indicator that it’s just about time for the Strathmore Children’s Choir to begin another season. The official start of the season will be Oct. 4, and there will be a new choir offered for older choral students.
“We’ve tried to instigate this choir for the last two years but haven’t generated enough interest, but this year we have a bunch of kids who were in the Encore choir last year who have aged up, so the choir starts at Grade 6. Now we have a choir for those kids Grade 6 and up,” said Director Loralee Laycock.
The Bravo choir is for Kindergarten and Grade 1 singers, the Encore Choir is for Grades 2 to 5 and the Finale choir will be for kids Grade 6 up to the age of 18. Laycock said she would love to have some older singers who may be able to help teach the younger kids.
A preview of the Finale choir was at the spring concert so parents and community members could get an idea of the kind of songs the Finale choir will sing, and what kind of music they will learn.
“It was great, I think we had 12 singers in that choir and they only had a month to rehearse. They learned two songs and sang them at the spring concert. It was a great way for people at the concert to see what’s coming next for the young people as well,” said Laycock.
“We do a lot of music written for choirs so they can learn the basic principles of singing and what singing in a choir means. That means they will be singing songs in parts and the Finale choir will be singing more difficult songs like that.”
The Strathmore Children’s Choir is meant to give kids a chance to learn more about choir outside of their classroom, and maybe learn different things. Laycock sees it as a way to add to what’s being taught, not as something to take away from school choir teachings.
October will also mark the start of the choir’s fifth season. It began from a need in the community and continues to grow each year.
“We started the choir originally because I had two girls at the time who were four and six and I wanted them to get to sing in a choir. The school they went to at the time didn’t offer a choir for younger singers,” said Laycock.
“I wanted them to have an opportunity to sing with other children in the community, and since there wasn’t anything available like that for the community we started it. It’s a non-auditioned choir. Our whole motto is making music fun, and my goal really is to promote music and choral singing in a positive way.”
Choir members are expected to commit to one rehearsal a week, the time length of which varies depending on the age group. The Bravo students practice for 30 minutes, Encore practices for an hour and the Finale choir will practice for an hour and a half.
They are required to be at the performances and concerts that are held, which are typically a Christmas concert, a spring concert, and compete in the local festival, which has been at Drumheller the last three years.
Laycock said there are often appearances at community events offered as well such as singing the national anthem at a few local hockey games, and this past summer choir members sang at the Canada Day celebrations. More information, and registration forms, can be found at www.strathmorechildrenschoir.com.