Oakville Choirs Sing Proud in New York City

Out of six  choirs, five received gold awards at the Heritage National Music Festival earlier this month.

The choir traveled to New York City for the performance and sang in the cathedral-like Riverside Church.

The gold award means the choirs scored 90 percent or higher from the judges. Four choirs also received the national adjudicator award, which is a 95 percent or higher average score.

The concert choir, chamber choir and treble concert choir all got first in their division.

Choir Director Paula Martin said she was extremely pleased with how her students performed as well as how they behaved on the trip.

“They did very well, but I was not surprised because they prepared very well,” she said. “They did rise to the level of expectation and they were really, really well-behaved. They just seemed to have such a great time.”

Martin said the choir’s preparation involved singing in several different locations to compensate for the unfamiliar venue. The 139 students only practiced once in the cathedral before the competition.

“In class, we sang in the stairwell, sang in the gym, outside and in the commons where they could experiment how sound travels differently,” she said.

While in the city, the musicians saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and traveled to the Sept. 11 Memorial, Times Square and took a dinner cruise around the Statue of Liberty.

When the students spotted the statue, Martin said they spontaneously started singing, “God Bless America.”

The choir’s next performance will be at May 7 at 7 p.m.