Brentwood students return from Edmonton

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Members of the Brentwood Elementary School honour choir were in Edmonton from Feb. 3 to 5. The kids, Grade 4 to 6, took part in the Alberta Children’s Choir, ACC. Choirs who are members of the Alberta Choral Federation can send students to the ACC. 

“I opened it up to the choir, I didn’t pick them. I was hoping I wouldn’t get more than eight so I wouldn’t have to come up with a way to pick them,” said Carolyn Steeves, music teacher for Brentwood School. Steeves said they were able to recommend up to eight students, and luckily for her, when she sent a request out, only seven had signed up. The kids got their music three days before the regional rehearsal, which was on Jan. 11 in Calgary. 

“I helped them initially, kind of get them started and I have been kind of checking up on them,” said Steeves. 

She also drove up to Edmonton on Feb. 5 to watch the concert, and cheer her kids on. 

“It was so high quality, everything was wonderful,” said Steeves. She said she thinks it was beyond their expectations. 

While all of the kids who attended unanimously agreed they would go back in a heartbeat, each had something different they enjoyed most about being a part of the ACC. 

“I learned lots of songs and I learned songs in five different languages and that was lots of fun,” said Luka Nizetic, whose brother Nik was the eighth person to head up to Edmonton. 

“It’s fun because you get to go on stage and sing away. Our choir sounded amazing because it had so much harmony and stuff,” said Metaya Anderson. She said learning the five different languages wasn’t as difficult once she got the tune down. 

“I thought it was fun, because I like singing and I like performing and I met a few people I really enjoyed talking with,” said Conor Anderson.

Samantha Walstra, Ainsley Sorensen and Raegan Burkholder all agreed it was fun and they had learned a lot, especially from guest conductor Linda Beaupre. 

“I thought it was really cool because we got to sing with a whole bunch of different people,” said Erin Water Chief. 

One of her favourite parts was singing in front of all of the people. Once she got over her initial nervousness. There were 66 other children from all over Alberta who took part in the ACC.