Strathmore singers take part in Alberta Children’s Choir

By Christine Foshaug Times Contributor

Eleven Strathmore singers have been chosen to participate in the Alberta Children’s Choir (ACC) South 2020.
École Brentwood Elementary School is sending seven choristers: Grade 6 students Stella Dempsey, Sophia Greep, Mason Miller, Sara Miller, Ella Peterson, Haydn Zucht and Grade 5 student Kamryn Humen. Four singers from the Strathmore Children’s Choir (SCC) – Brianna Hollingsworth, Julie Jacobs, Andraya Johnson and Giselle Lisonbee – will also be participating.
It’s a big commitment for the choristers, explained Carolyn Steeves, music specialist at École Brentwood Elementary School. They will attend a weekend workshop Jan. 30-Feb. 1, but their preparation began five weeks earlier, when they received their music packet of seven titles. They were expected to be very familiar for the first regional rehearsal, which was held Jan. 11.
For the ACC weekend workshop, led by guest conductor Lynnel Joy Jenkins, the music needs to be mastered and memorized, which requires nightly practice with the rehearsal tracks. The weekend culminates with a gala concert on Sunday, Feb. 2 at the Bella Concert Hall at Mount Royal University.
“École Brentwood Elementary School has been recommending choristers for many years,” said Steeves. “It has long been a program older choristers in our school look forward to participating in.”
This is the sixth year the SCC has sent choristers to the program.
“Any opportunity to send our singers out into the choral community benefits everyone when they come back,” said SCC director Loralee Laycock. “They share what they’ve learned with us, and they have more confidence in their abilities. As a result, they strengthen the other singers around them as they all gain more confidence together. It’s a wonderful opportunity for anyone who has the chance to be involved.”
The ACC experience has had a profound effect on numerous past participants, said Steeves, who notes that many continue to contribute to the arts after leaving Brentwood. “For example, I have had students take private voice lessons and become very involved in the arts at junior and senior high school as well as in the community,” she said. “It is so gratifying to see them at a later stage in their lives still loving music.”