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13 Students Attend 74th Annual Boone Central Choral Clinic

By: Alicia Holmberg, a sophomore at Leigh High School on January 28, 2019

Boone Central Choral Clinic Attendees (Front Row, L to R): Morgan Brabec, Natalie Reeves, Taylor Larson, Shyla Shaw, Lexi Schroeder, Madison Noonan; (Back Row): Cortlynn Cadwallader, Audie Tejkl, Darian Ober-Brown, Meranda Kudrna, Taya Gross, Alicia Holmberg, Rylee Olson.

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Boone Central Choral Clinic Attendees (Front Row, L to R): Morgan Brabec, Natalie Reeves, Taylor Larson, Shyla Shaw, Lexi Schroeder, Madison Noonan; (Back Row): Cortlynn Cadwallader, Audie Tejkl, Darian Ober-Brown, Meranda Kudrna, Taya Gross, Alicia Holmberg, Rylee Olson.

A section of the Clarkson-Leigh choir raised their voices Monday, January 14, as 13 choir students made the trip to Boone Central for the annual Boone Central Choral Clinic.  Choir director Mrs. Cindy Settje accompanied the group on this outing.

The trip was open to any choir students who chose to attend.  

The students from Leigh and Clarkson that attended were Meranda Kudrna, Taylor Larson, Natalie Reeves, Taya Gross, Lexi Schroeder, Shyla Shaw, Alicia Holmberg, Rylee Olson, Morgan Brabec, Audie Tejkl, Darian Ober-Brown, Madison Noonan, and Cortlynn Cadwallader.  

The group spent from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm practicing the music pieces with the clinician Cheri Helmer-Riensche. This year was the 74th annual Choral Clinic, and this was the first year that students from the Clarkson-Leigh choir attended. All together there were 257 students present from 15 surrounding schools.

Junior Natalie Reeves said, “The Boone Central Choral Clinic was a great experience for us to sing with different schools and see new music. We saw higher-class schools and saw how amazingly talented some students are. Hopefully we will take what we learned from this clinic, share it with the other choir students, and use it at District Music Contest. Overall, it was a very fun-filled day full of singing!”

All the practice that these students put in was put to good use at 5:30 pm when the concert commenced. They sang five songs as a full group, with four small groups from surrounding schools singing in between.

The choir sang four songs to start the concert: “Why We Sing” by Greg Gilpin, “Bring Him Home” arranged by Mark Brymer, “The Pasture” by Z. Randall Stroope, and “Sinner Man” by Gwyneth Walker. The finishing piece was “Battle Hymn of the Republic” arranged by Roy Ringwald and accompanied by the Boone Central High School Band.

Mrs. Cindy Settje said, “I was so excited for the 13 students who volunteered their time to attend. Anytime you get the opportunity to sing with 15 other schools, it’s exciting. I’m so proud of them.”