Gold rated performances

Emme Longman, Staff Writer

ISSMA, or Indiana State School Music Association, took place for the choirs Expressions and Center Stage, on April 21, 2017. Both choirs left the school at 6:00 pm on the same bus, and arrived at Richmond High School to perform.

ISSMA is a choir event that all the choirs have been training for for months. The choirs  were evaluated and judged on three songs of their choice, and then they had to sight-sing, which is picking up a piece of music and performing it.

“ISSMA is an annual evaluation of our choir to show us what we have improved on and our strengths and weakness as a choir. It tells us what we can base our future choir preparation on,” Ava Hampton, 10. “It told us what we need to improve on.”

Expressions warmed up at 7:37 pm, and Center Stage warmed up at 8:00 pm.

Expressions sang at 8:00 pm and Center Stage competed at 9:15

Expressions sang, “Song of Ruth,” “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” and “Dance on My Heart.”

Center Stage sang, “Irish Blessing,” “J’entends Le Moulin,” and, “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners.”

After performing, both choirs had to “sight-sing,” which is picking up a piece of music and singing the notes on solfege. They also had to do 12 measures of a rhythmic piece.

Both choirs won a gold at the end of the competition.

“My favorite part of ISSMA was knowing that we got a gold,” 10, Abragail Rigdon.  

Both choirs took the bus home, and arrived back at the school at 11:00.