The Lake Marion High School Concert Choir has been selected to perform at the famed venue in New York City this spring, April 26, as part of a multi-choir performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria” by high school concert choirs from across North America.

Carneige Hall here they come!

Gayle Alsbrooks Singleton, choral director at LMHS, said approximately 20 students are making preparations for the five-day, four-night residency April 23-27, 2010.

“This is an honor for our students as well as a learning experience,” Singleton said. Not only is the trip to Carnegie Hall a first for the 33-year teaching veteran, but for the school’s concert choir as well.



Soprano Janelle Watson, 16, a junior, said she’s looking forward to the trip because “it’s a unique experience, and we’ll perform with other choirs.”

“Our choir is very important, and it makes me proud,” Watson said.

Tenor Aaron Powe, 16, another junior, said, “It’s really an honor. We were invited to perform and that means a lot to me.”

“Singing is my life. I wake up singing, and I go to sleep singing,” he added.

Singleton said the concert choir has received excellent and superior ratings during performances at the annual South Carolina Choral Festival, sponsored by the Music Educators Association.

Singleton taught at Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three’s former Roberts High School (1976-1981) and returned to the district in 2000, where she taught at both of the former Elloree and Holly Hill-Roberts high schools and remained with the district when the schools combined as Lake Marion High a few years ago.

As an effort to publicize the concert choir’s upcoming trip and drum up monetary donations, the concert choir is sponsoring “Youth Fest 2009 – A Praise Festival,” at 5 p.m. this Sunday, Nov. 22, at the LMHS auditorium. Admission is $10.

Doors open at 4 p.m., and door prizes will be awarded.

Singleton said some of the performing groups will include: Women of Praise, Community of Faith Praise Dancers, praise dancers from the surrounding areas and ministries from throughout the Midlands.

The cost of the trip to Carneige Hall is $1,822.88 per student. The concert choir hopes to raise approximately $40,000 by Dec. 11. Singleton said the group has received about half of the funds it needs.

The names of individuals, businesses and/or organizations that make contributions will be published in the LMHS Concert Choir’s Winter Concert program scheduled on Monday, Dec. 14.

For more information or to make a donation, call Gayle Alsbrooks Singleton at Lake Marion High School, 803-854-9213.

T&D Correspondent Martha Rose Brown can be reached by e-mail at marfawose@aol.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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