With the show choir competition season quickly approaching, AL hosted a clinic to get their season started early. This clinic was the first-ever show choir competition AL has hosted and it consisted of three schools which included Missouri Valley, Thomas Jefferson, and Crete. Each school was able to perform their shows in front of judges who complimented them on their strong suits of their performance along with helpful critiques to apply to their performances.

There were awards given out to the schools by judges: Music Teacher at Omaha Westside Doran Johnson, Vocal Music Teacher at Papillion LaVista Scott Dugdale, and Freelance Opera Singer Elijah Brown. These awards consisted of, but weren’t limited to best opener, best ballad, best overall vocal performance, best overall choreography, etc. Each school was awarded at least two certificates for their performances.

Overall, the competition had a great turnout with lots of people attending to not only perform but to watch. The excitement within the crowd along with the excitement on stage made it a thrilling and memorable experience. 

Although Show Choir Teacher and Vocal Music Teacher Elmer Ellefson was grateful for the turnout he was hoping to see a few more schools that could have competed. 

“I wish more schools could have attended,” Ellefson said. “The lasting effects of COVID had cost some of the schools to not attend.”

Ellefson did not see this as a major downfall for the competition by any means. 

“The excitement and support and the energy of our choir and visiting students was great,” Ellefson said. “We got lots of compliments on that.”

Senior Grace Ozello and soloists on the show choir team gained attention from the judges and applause from the audience. She not only performed well but was happy with how her solo went along with her team’s performance.

“The competition went way smoother than I expected it to,” said Ozzello. “I was happy with my soloist performance. I got a lot of compliments on my performance which was really cool.”

Senior Anna Newby was also very happy with their first-ever home competition performance, but she is even more thrilled to perform in front of others. 

“I’m excited that we have a really good show this year and it showcases a lot of stuff compared to last year,” said Newby. “We are going to different schools this year so we get to go out and perform well for people that we haven’t performed for before.”

AL’s show choir competition group is looking at a challenging schedule filled with tons of competition from different schools. They’re so far looking to compete at UNL Midwest Cup, North Polk, Westwood Jubilation, and a few other smaller competitions. 

Overall, AL is going into the show choir competition season strong and hopeful to bring home a trophy. Junior Luis Rodriguez doesn’t doubt that they have some fierce competition that they will be put up against.

“I feel like in a show choir world, everyone is your competition,” said Rodriguez. “Everyone is just trying to perform their absolute best and place as high as they can.”