Solo and ensemble is an opportunity for every student to showcase themselves with songs they choose and receive a score and feedback on. This event is hosted by the Michigan School Voice Music Association (MSVMA), a leading choir organization that many students work extremely hard to get to sing with. This organization was established around 87 years ago and has completely changed the way we view music education.
Kearsley High School Choir Director, Zachary Smith, encourages every student to at least look at Solo and Ensemble. This opportunity is open to all choirs. As of now, Kearsley has two choirs and has nine participants this year. Three of these students are from Concert Choir, the open choir at KHS, and five are from Acapella, the auditioned choir at KHS. Kearsley is a District 3 school meaning all nine of these students traveled to Mt Morris High School and came home with ones across the board.
The students are scored on a scale of five to one, one being the highest score you can receive.
Senior, Madalyn Reif, Kearsley’s Vocal Music President, has taken advantage of this to help improve her performance skills. Reif is breathtaking on stage, and you’d never guess that she was ever nervous.
To Reif, each performance is a skillful and mental lesson. “I must say with every performance there comes nerves, but the more you do it, the more calm you become,” she states.
At Solo and Ensemble you are given comments, or feedback, to help evaluate where you are as a performer. Sometimes it is the way your mouth is shaped, other times it is the emotion. For senior, Levi Prey, KVM’s Librarian, their most memorable comment was, “to tell the story and focus on the story of the song while singing it.”
Prey did this for the first time in choir this year, however, they have done it for the band before. They are not shy to critique and take it with stride.
The story often is one of the biggest selling points for music. A performance is a form of storytelling, it is meant to draw out emotion and paint a picture that moves an audience. The passion of the performer is what brings life to these songs and conveys the meaning the composer wanted to be told.
To have this passion, performers have to fall in love with their stories and want to perform them. For Solo and Ensemble, it is encouraged to pick two songs, one in English and one in a foreign language.
Junior, Emily Callahan, KVM’s Stage Manager, chose to sing a beautiful Italian piece called Vittoria Mio Core. Callahan describes the song simply, “Vittoria was about being triumphant over love.”
The love in question is a man singing about a woman who has lied and hurt him and yet remains on top. Callahan performed this piece with a driven pride, showcasing her ability to move around vocally.
There does not inherently need to be personal significance when it comes to the songs, sometimes performers just fall in love with the words. Senior, Emma Edgeworth goes in-depth with her interpretations of her music.
“In If There Were Dreams to Sell, it talks about the cost of dreams and how there isn’t a cost to be able to dream, but there is one in order for the dream to come true, big or small,” states Edgeworth.
The song resembles longing for peace, healing, and happiness despite the overbearing things asked of us as people. She continues with her other song saying that, “Cara Selve speaks of wandering through the darkness to find the answers to one’s heart. In search of love and what makes a person who they are.”
Edgeworth admired the parallel between each of the songs, and they both ended up holding a special place in her heart.
Junior, Aspen Jamerson, expresses their excitement because it is a new experience.
“It’s going to give me insight into what I need to work on to make me a better singer,” Jamerson spoke.
All five of these singers have put in so much effort for Solo and Ensemble and went to Lake Orion for state Solo and Ensemble on Saturday, April 13th, 2024.
