Hello, students and parents!
I apologize for the delay on forming show choir plans - I had been trying to find a stable enough break in the changing plans to establish a solid plan, but I'm really quickly realizing that this situation is going to be continually changing and our best option is just to roll with things as we go along and continue to adapt our plan as best we can with SAFETY at the forefront of every decision we make.
For this year, I would like to make show choir available to everyone. None of us are going to need to be worried about the pressures of competition or anything like that, so I want to use this year to really try to allow as many students to be involved as would like to be involved. Because of this, my initial plan was to just have 1 large group of all show choir students, assuming we were going to be virtual all year. However, now that we are able to have rehearsals (these are NOT going to be 'normal' rehearsals... more on that in a moment) in person, we do need to keep the number of students per group under control. So, before I make the decision of whether to split into Legacy and Swingsingers again, I need to know how many students are planning to be involved in show choir this year. If we only end up with 30 interested students, we will just have one group, but if there are more like 70 for instance, we will absolutely split.
During rehearsals: we are going to try to have in-person rehearsals when and where we can - if it is SAFE. Rehearsals outdoors are doable until it gets too cold, and then we can use larger spaces and MASKS ON with no singing indoors to socially distantly work on choreography and teambuilding. We will hold vocal rehearsals when we can outdoors, and virtually on Zoom when being outdoors is not an option.
I want to say thank you to all the students and parents that participated in the surveys I sent to returning students. When reading the answers, particularly to "why are you interested in participating in show choir again?" I was so moved to read that almost every single student mentioned missing the family atmosphere of show choir. I know that everything is going to look a lot different for the Batavia Show Choirs this year, but we are still a family, and we can still have each others' backs and build and strengthen a community, even over Zoom, or spread out in a parking lot with masks on.
So, I would like to schedule an informational Zoom meeting for students and parents on Monday, October 19th at 7PM. I will get a headcount of students planning to participate this year, give information about 'auditions' for the season, and be available to answer questions from everyone. We will get the audition process rolling next week, and will get to rehearsing and building our show choir family!
Please feel free to reach out with any questions ahead of time, or just make a note to ask them in the Zoom meeting, as others may have the same question.
Hope to see you all then!
Melissa O'Neill
--
Melissa O'Neill
Director - Swingsingers, Legacy
Batavia High School
PS: The link to the Zoom call is posted in Google Classroom for all choir students, and in the email sent home. If you would like to have it sent to you, please email peter.barsch@bps101.net or melmoneill@gmail.com.
I apologize for the delay on forming show choir plans - I had been trying to find a stable enough break in the changing plans to establish a solid plan, but I'm really quickly realizing that this situation is going to be continually changing and our best option is just to roll with things as we go along and continue to adapt our plan as best we can with SAFETY at the forefront of every decision we make.
For this year, I would like to make show choir available to everyone. None of us are going to need to be worried about the pressures of competition or anything like that, so I want to use this year to really try to allow as many students to be involved as would like to be involved. Because of this, my initial plan was to just have 1 large group of all show choir students, assuming we were going to be virtual all year. However, now that we are able to have rehearsals (these are NOT going to be 'normal' rehearsals... more on that in a moment) in person, we do need to keep the number of students per group under control. So, before I make the decision of whether to split into Legacy and Swingsingers again, I need to know how many students are planning to be involved in show choir this year. If we only end up with 30 interested students, we will just have one group, but if there are more like 70 for instance, we will absolutely split.
During rehearsals: we are going to try to have in-person rehearsals when and where we can - if it is SAFE. Rehearsals outdoors are doable until it gets too cold, and then we can use larger spaces and MASKS ON with no singing indoors to socially distantly work on choreography and teambuilding. We will hold vocal rehearsals when we can outdoors, and virtually on Zoom when being outdoors is not an option.
I want to say thank you to all the students and parents that participated in the surveys I sent to returning students. When reading the answers, particularly to "why are you interested in participating in show choir again?" I was so moved to read that almost every single student mentioned missing the family atmosphere of show choir. I know that everything is going to look a lot different for the Batavia Show Choirs this year, but we are still a family, and we can still have each others' backs and build and strengthen a community, even over Zoom, or spread out in a parking lot with masks on.
So, I would like to schedule an informational Zoom meeting for students and parents on Monday, October 19th at 7PM. I will get a headcount of students planning to participate this year, give information about 'auditions' for the season, and be available to answer questions from everyone. We will get the audition process rolling next week, and will get to rehearsing and building our show choir family!
Please feel free to reach out with any questions ahead of time, or just make a note to ask them in the Zoom meeting, as others may have the same question.
Hope to see you all then!
Melissa O'Neill
--
Melissa O'Neill
Director - Swingsingers, Legacy
Batavia High School
PS: The link to the Zoom call is posted in Google Classroom for all choir students, and in the email sent home. If you would like to have it sent to you, please email peter.barsch@bps101.net or melmoneill@gmail.com.
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