Thursday, December 31, 2009

Looking ahead to Once on This Island


Once on This Island is the junior high musical this year. Performances are on Friday and Saturday, May 7 and 8. It's the story of Ti Moune (tee MOON), a poor girl who lives on an island in the Caribbean, where poor people live very different lives from the grandes hommes--the rich people. Ti Moune saves the life of a rich boy, Daniel, and falls in love. What is her fate? The people of the island, the birds, the trees, and the gods of earth, water, love and death tell the story.

Read about the show and listen to the songs here.

Here are links to some other junior high and high school productions of this show. Take a look--but remember--our production will be uniquely ours!

Opening: We Dance

Mama Will Provide

One of the slow songs: Part of the Human Heart

The big number at the end: We Tell the Story

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Singing for Christmas

I heard this story on Chicago's NPR station (WBEZ, 91.5 FM) while driving to school this morning. Listen to a seventh grader talk about singing and especially, singing for Christmas worship services.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Junior High Choir in December

Junior High Choir Performances in December

The Junior High Choir sings for worship on Sunday, December 6, in the 11:00 a.m. worship service. Students should be in the music room, robed and ready to rehearse, at 10:30.

The Junior High Choir also sings for the Grace Christmas Concert on Sunday, December 13. The concert begins at 4:00. I will let you know what time the singers should arrive—probably around 2:45.

The Junior High Choir does not sing on Wednesday, December 2, as originally scheduled.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Meanwhile, in Senior Kindergarten

Last week the senior kindergartners visited the teleidoscope in the Grace Garden. (JK and preschool came too. That's Mrs. Pascavis and the three-year-old preschool class in the picture.) SK had music right after that, so we sang made-up songs about the colors and patterns in the "rainbow garden." I can't reproduce all the tunes the children sang, but Mrs. Schnack did write down the words. Here's what the students sang:

It's so beautiful in a flower garden. It's like a rainbow. I love the rainbow scope. (Rachel)

I don't know anything about the rainbow scope. (Zion)

There was blue and pink, green and yellow. That's what I saw. (Adam)

It was a big cylinder. It had some black coming out of the bottom like a telescope. (Chuck)

I had fun looking at it. I loved it. (Carina)

A rainbow scope has pumpkins and red pepper in it. When you look inside the rainbow scope there's all different colors. (Emily)

We spin it while we look at it. Looked really pretty. There were pumpkins, flowers, and I think that's all. (Erika)

It was a telescope mixed with a periscope. When the gourds and flowers spin around it looked like squares and quarters and patterns going around in a circle. (Grace)

I saw flowers. And I saw blue flowers. A I saw yellow flowers, orange flowers, blue, and I saw purple, then I saw red flowers. And then I saw green flowers. (J. J.)

Doesn't remember. (Alexander)

It had a pumpkin and it has lots of plants. (Griffin)

Flowers that move around into shapes and look cool. No black. Beautiful flowers, orange, green, white, blue and yellow. (Stephen)

The rainbow scope is so colorful! It is so beautiful in the flower garden. All the colors of the rainbow are for you! The flowers are red like apples, orange of the sun, yellow like bananas, green as the trees, the aqua blue of the sky and ocean, too, and purple of the evening sky,

The rainbow flowers are for you.

(Could this be written in a song that the bell choir could sing? Max)

First it has pink and white and yellow and purple flowers. Then it changed into pumpkins and peppers and turned into carrots, I think. (Jahnaya)

I look through the rainbow thing when the bowl spins around. When you look in the microscope it changes colors and shapes. (India)

There was pumpkins. It was black. That's it. (Aiden)

I saw flowers, pumpkin and I saw tree plants. (Sebastian)



All the colors of the rainbow are good and nice. We can pick flowers for our mom and sister. Orange is for pumpkins and have fund with colors. (Naomi)

It had a lot of flowers and had some orange things in it. (Matthew)

I like it. I like looking in it, and I like when it spins around and I like seeing it. (Jordyn)

It makes the stuff in there turn colorful when turning around. (Jack F.)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Laudamus te from Vivaldi's Gloria

The junior high choir has been working on "Laudamus te" from Vivaldi's Gloria. Here are some performances. Listen, compare, learn. Which do you like best?

Adult women as soloists in this one. You can follow the score as they sing. Listen for the trills and ornaments.



Child soloists from Paris. Not always perfectly accurate.



German boys. You can hear more from this choir at their web site.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Oops--a correction

The paper calendar for Junior High choir that was distributed at the beginning of the school year says that the kids will sing at the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, October 25. Actually, they sing at the 8:30 service that morning. The bell choir performs at 8:30 as well.

An updated pdf file with the schedule can be downloaded from the Parent Quick Links page of the Grace School web site.

Sorry for the confusion--Ms. Gotsch

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Thank you!

Thank you to Ellie, Rebecca, Olivia, Olivia, Sarah, and Dan for singing in the choir at Opening Service. Good job! See you Friday (well, most of you) for our first choir rehearsal.

Monday, August 24, 2009