The CMS Choir participated in the all-day Just Sing It! Festival at Springfield High School last week. STACY SWARTOUT-MCKEE
Creswell Middle School Choir members were among 455 middle school choir students from 11 area schools to participate in the all-day Just Sing It! Festival on Wednesday, Feb. 21. The non-competitive festival is hosted by Springfield High School and their choir director, Stacy Swartout-McKee. The festival’s guest conductor was Christopher Dobson.
Choir students from Creswell, Pleasant Hill, Lowell, Hamlin, Lincoln, Monroe, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Oakley, Cascade and Shasta took part in the festival.
The festival involved rehearsing three mass choir songs, which would be performed by all students together and recorded at the end of the festival. Students from all schools were mixed together during rehearsals.
Mass choir numbers were ”Tongo,” arranged by Dobson; ”Fly Away Home,” by Pinkzebra; and ”Walkin’ on That Heavenly Road,” by Greg Gilpin.
Each choir was also able to perform two songs of their own. Under Choir Director Erik Telfer, the CMS Choir performed ”Zum Gali,” arranged by Victor C. Johnson, which featured Zaide Allen on finger cymbals; and ”The Climb,” arranged by Deke Sharon.
”CMS Choir received a lot of compliments from other middle school directors as to how well they sung,” Telfer said. ”I’m proud of CMS Choir in the way they performed and in being safe, respectful and responsible at the festival. It was a great day of making and sharing music.”
