The Reed Academy Singers were selected for the statewide honor of performing at the 2017 American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Minneapolis. Elite choirs from around the world were selected for the honor and will perform at the national conference, including only three middle school choirs.
[pullquote]”It’s a really big deal,” says Daniel Gutierrez, choir director at Reed Academy.[/pullquote]
“To put things in perspective, the other two middle school choirs that were selected included a choir from a gifted and talented magnet school in North Carolina and the other choir was from a highly competitive fine arts school in West Palm Beach, Florida,” he says. “So these are really elite programs, and we’re very honored to be included with them.”
The Reed Academy Singers, a choir made up of seventh- and eighth-graders, will perform at the conference on March 8. The Singers will perform in a set alongside three other choirs, including the Eric Whitacre Singers, a Grammy award-winning choir that record albums and are featured in major motion pictures.
“To put things in further perspective, some of the greatest choirs in the world will be there,” said Gutierrez. “Choirs like the Inner Mongolian Youth Choir from Mongolia, Kammerchor Stuggart from Germany, Orphei Dranger from Sweden and Voz en Punto from Mexico. Several choirs who are performing have won the Choir of the World competition as well. So we’re excited to be a part of it.”
The Reed Academy Singers performed at the Missouri Music Educators Association’s statewide conference on Jan. 27. The Singers received two standing ovations during their performance. But while the students were praised for their great performance by educators and musicians across the state, Gutierrez now has another lesson for students to learn: to keep striving for excellence.
“We need to sing about 80 percent better and we’ll be good to go,” he says. “I don’t want them to settle because we had a great performance. I want them to keep improving because we want students to know that they can always do better. I worry about students knowing how to be disciplined and doing things well. So when we stand, we stand excellently and silently because everything we do is excellent. I focus on how to make better people, and the product of making better people and also making better learners is a really good choir.”
Gutierrez credits a culture of excellence at Reed with much of his program’s success and continued support from its school community. Nearly 50 percent of students at Reed are involved in the vocal music program – and it just continues to grow, says Dr. Debbie Grega, principal at Reed Academy.
“For Reed, it’s great for the kids to see that working hard on something does have its benefits and pays off in the long run,” she said. “But I think it’s extra satisfying that the students who work so hard on this music every day, that their work is being appreciated by people who do this as a living. But to go and sing very challenging music to people who would know if you mess up, it’s an extra degree of both difficulty and accomplishment to being selected. It’s such a big deal, and I’m so proud of them.”