It is such a joy to make music with the middle school students of Benton Community! This year, we have changed our course requirements a bit. In the past, students were required to take general music in 7th grade, without the option of choir until 8th grade. This year, our schedule changed to a block, allowing all 7th grade students to sign up for choir. With the luxury of both a female director (myself) and a male director (Mr. John Hayden) in the choir department, we now operate both a 7th and 8th grade girls choir, and a 7th and 8th grade boys choir. They meet with myself and Mr. Hayden, respectively. This change has allowed us to address and maneuver the voice changes of adolescence with a higher level of comfort than if the students were grouped together. We are also able to select a repertoire more fitting to young boys & girls needs. We have 75 members in the 7/8 girls choir and 38 members in the 7/8 boys choir. These choirs meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during the Middle School Choir time of the school day. In December, we took the boys to sing carols at the Nursing Home in Vinton, and we took the girls to sing carols at the mall in Coralville. We presented a concert in November, and have 2 more coming up in March and May!
On Tuesday and Thursday, we use the Middle School choir time to rehearse the Middle School Show Choir, Illusions. This group has 60 members this year, and is rising to the challenge of giving Illusions a renewed sense of pride. Their first performance was at West Branch in late January. They did a great job and then presented an even more impressive performance at Touch of Class this past weekend. They will compete at Marion and Cedar Rapids Jefferson in the coming weeks against many other middle school show choirs around Cedar Rapids. We cannot wait to see how they do! Mr. Hayden and I are continually appreciative of the community support of the Benton Vocal Program!
Our 7th grade general music class hopes that students gain an appreciation for and awareness of how music is used in their everyday lives, whether they see themselves as musicians or not. One of our most exciting units is piano playing! Through a donation, we were able to purchase a set of classroom pianos this year for these students to learn the basics of playing.