All-State Choir

I am so super proud of Morgan! Earlier in the school year she auditioned at for the Elementary All-State Choir that would be performing at the Colorado Music Educators Conference that would be held in Colorado Springs. Morgan was one of 6 kids from her school to make it! Talent-wise she is an interesting mix between me and Ken. She definitely has some skills, but doesn't necessarily want to be a star. She, at least for now, likes being in the group.

For several months, they had before school choir practices so they could learn all the music. They had about 8 pieces to learn. Even though it was mostly unison and 2 part, there was some difficult music, including one in Hebrew. Even better, one of her best friends, Zach made the All-State Choir too so they had a great time practicing together.

The weekend of CMEA we decided it would be most fun to go with Kris and Zach Briggs. Ken had plenty of hotel points so we used those instead of paying mega bucks to stay at the fancy, Broadmoor Hotel (I can never say this without saying "Broaaaadmore" in my haughtiest British accent) where the conference was being held. We headed down right after school on Friday and stopped for a delicious dinner at Cheesecake Factory. When we got to Colorado Springs, we checked in and immediately put on our suits and headed down to the pool. After some splish -splashin' we did a late night run to Target for some last minute materials and to Culver's for some custard. Yum! We then set the alarm for early before watching some TV and going to bed.



Morgan didn't need the alarm. She was so excited she was awake by 4:00am! Not so great for me since I was sharing a bed with her and she was wiggling lots. We all got up and ready and grabbed some breakfast before getting to the hotel for check-in and rehearsal. The kids were to rehearse all day leading up to their 4:30 concert. Kris and I had some chaperoning assignments throughout the day, but sadly the room was pretty packed so they had us out in the hall. (I would have loved to listen to the rehearsal. Bummer!) We were able to sneak away while some of the other moms were on duty so we could go to lunch and then take in the high school All-State jazz choirs concert. There was some fun stuff performed. I'll have to remember some of those arrangements for Take Note.




After the concert, I ran back over to the rehearsal rooms to help the kids make there way over to where the concert would be held. It was amazing to me how they redid the entire formation of the room to fit all those people. It was pretty crowded and we had to wait quite a while to get in the hall, but when we finally did Kris was able to find us 2 seats up on the 5th row. Lucky us! It would have been impossible to see our kids had we been all the way in the back.

The concert was very well done! It was the first time that they had ever done an Elementary All-State choir and I'm sure they will have lots of ideas how to make it better for next year. Unfortunately the conductor they worked with wasn't especially kid friendly, but overall it was a great experience! I was really proud of all the Prairie Ridge kids, especially Morgan and Zach. I also really appreciated the extra time and effort that their choir teacher, Mrs. Keller put in to help them prepare.

(Morgan is right in the middle.)