Festival gives 9th St. Singers year’s first performance

    Music filled the auditorium at Chase County Schools Monday as Imperial hosted the annual high school Show Choir Festival.
    CCS’s 9th St. Singers were among the 12 groups performing in the morning to early-afternoon show sponsored by the Nebraska Choral Directors Association for schools in the western part of the state.
    There were no first, second and third place winners named, but groups hoped to tally the required number of points from judges to earn the Gold Award.
    The number of points varies depending on the NSAA classification in which the school competes.
    While CCS did not earn a Gold Award this year, first-year director David Rushing said he’s very proud of the 13 singers and the hard work they have put in this year.
    “I’m happy that we had the opportunity to perform and host the event,” he said.
    Rushing said not receiving the Gold Award as they’d hoped was “a good eye-opener for us and will drive us to work hard for our next performance.”
    The group received some good information and advice from the judges in both written comments and the personal critique, he said. Those will guide them to make changes and fixes, he added.
    Songs performed by the 9th St. Singers were “Go the Distance” arr. by Ed Lojeski, “From Now On” arr. by Roger Emerson, “Dance Your Dance” composed by Jacob Narverud and “Larger than Life” written by PINKZEBRA.
    Monday was the 9th St. Singers’ first performance of the school year.
    Also performing were show choirs from Kimball, Holdrege, North Platte St. Pat’s, Bridgeport, Alliance, Gering, Mitchell and Julesburg, Colorado.
    Gold Awards were earned by Kimball, Gering, Bridgeport, Holdrege and Julesburg.
    CCS Supt. Adam Lambert, a former vocal music teacher, served as one of the judges. Others were Jon Marquez from UNL and Lincoln High, Pete Eklund of UNL and Clayton Moyer from Kearney High School.
     The show choir will be traveling to Grand Island Senior High for the Islander Invite Show Choir Competition Feb. 26, then to Harvard on March 9.