Minami Chorus Contest
Minami junior high school (like every other Japanese junior high school that I know of) has two major events each fall: the sports festival and the chorus contest. Basically, they both serve as excuses for the students to be painfully distracted in class for the first half of the fall term...but I'm sure that they are intended to instill upon the youth of Japan an appreciation of the arts, physical activity and teamwork. Inevitably, the older students who are overwhelmed with the stress of "cram school" and the million tests required to enter high school (as well as the fact that they will be saying goodbye to many of their childhood friends when high school begins) are MUCH more into the competitive spirit than the first or second year students. I'm talking about hysterical tears from winners, losers and kids who can't bear the suspense of waiting to hear if their team won or lost.
All of the school's post-sports-festival energy has been channeled into this competition. Each class chooses two different conductors and pianists to lead their songs (let me just say how impressed I was that this system is even possible... 12 year olds conducting and accompanying chorus ensembles!), they come in early before school to practice... then again during homeroom, lunchtime, music class and after school. They self-regulate these rehearsals and motivate each other with a sense of team spirit and class unity that continues to blow my mind. And their singing is actually very good!
Minami had 6 classes competing in the chorus contest--two from each academic year. Each class sang two songs, one of their choosing and one that is sung by both classes within a grade. There were also performances by the teachers/PTA (which included me!) and by the elective music classes from the second and third years. Every teacher and a representative from each class score the event, grading the performance of each group and choosing one pianist and one conductor as 'the best' overall.
I suppressed giggles through both of the first year ensembles, not because their performance was especially comical, but because these kids are so unbelievably cute that I can't help but to laugh at them sometimes. Some of them were really singing their hearts out--eyes closed, leaning forward a little bit in their attempts to project their voices... and the little tone deaf boys with the changing voices were always the ones belting it out to the rafters. The quality of the performances seemed to increase with every successive group, culminating with the third year elective music group. Man those kids were good!
In the end, class 3-2 destroyed the competition, winning best ensemble, pianist and conductor... and leaving the kids from class 3-1 crying in disbelief. Its really heartbreaking to see so many kids upset at one time like that.
Class 3-1 giving their pre-performance speech... every group said almost the same thing: we had some difficult times but we worked very hard, so please enjoy our singing.
Some of my more outgoing boys at Minami...mostly first years with a few second years mixed in. Really awesome kids.
Some third year girls right before the judges' announcement
The winning class! (many of the strong personalities in this group were also on the winning sports day team... just something that I noticed)
All of the school's post-sports-festival energy has been channeled into this competition. Each class chooses two different conductors and pianists to lead their songs (let me just say how impressed I was that this system is even possible... 12 year olds conducting and accompanying chorus ensembles!), they come in early before school to practice... then again during homeroom, lunchtime, music class and after school. They self-regulate these rehearsals and motivate each other with a sense of team spirit and class unity that continues to blow my mind. And their singing is actually very good!
Minami had 6 classes competing in the chorus contest--two from each academic year. Each class sang two songs, one of their choosing and one that is sung by both classes within a grade. There were also performances by the teachers/PTA (which included me!) and by the elective music classes from the second and third years. Every teacher and a representative from each class score the event, grading the performance of each group and choosing one pianist and one conductor as 'the best' overall.
I suppressed giggles through both of the first year ensembles, not because their performance was especially comical, but because these kids are so unbelievably cute that I can't help but to laugh at them sometimes. Some of them were really singing their hearts out--eyes closed, leaning forward a little bit in their attempts to project their voices... and the little tone deaf boys with the changing voices were always the ones belting it out to the rafters. The quality of the performances seemed to increase with every successive group, culminating with the third year elective music group. Man those kids were good!
In the end, class 3-2 destroyed the competition, winning best ensemble, pianist and conductor... and leaving the kids from class 3-1 crying in disbelief. Its really heartbreaking to see so many kids upset at one time like that.
Class 3-1 giving their pre-performance speech... every group said almost the same thing: we had some difficult times but we worked very hard, so please enjoy our singing.
Some of my more outgoing boys at Minami...mostly first years with a few second years mixed in. Really awesome kids.
Some third year girls right before the judges' announcement
The winning class! (many of the strong personalities in this group were also on the winning sports day team... just something that I noticed)
posted by Kris at
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