A sign hangs on the wall of the Oxford High School choir room with the logo ‘Take it to the next level,? which is exactly what four Oxford High School choirs did as they qualified for the State Choral Festival with excellent ratings.
With Caritas and Men’s Ensemble previously qualifying for state, this completes OHS’s choir director Chris Card’s goal of having all six choir groups qualify for the state festival, which will be held on April 26-27 at Rochester High School.
‘I’m really proud of the kids,? Card said. ‘They bought into the goal and found out that if they work hard at it, they can achieve it, and that’s pretty exciting.?
The excellent rating by the four vocal groups, Women’s Choir , Men’s Choir, Concert Choir and Advanced Women’s Choir, validated what Card has been preaching to the kids since the beginning of the year.
‘Our mission at the beginning of the year was to take it to the next level and this is just proof that kids are doing it,? he said. ‘To say we’re going for it is one thing, to go out and accomplish it is another. So this is exactly what we set out to do, to take it to the next level.?
Card entered his third year instructing choir at the high school, and he noted that there was a lot of pressure on him to follow through on the high expectation he set. ‘We, as a choir program, said that we are really going to get it done and accomplish something that hasn’t been done before,? he explained.
His first challenge was getting the students to buy into the goal that he set. ‘Step one is having them buy into it, saying that it’s our goal, not just the director’s goal for them and that they own it,? he said.
Once the groups bought in, the rest came naturally. They started off by hanging a poster on the wall with the slogan ‘Take it to the next level,? which was used for daily inspiration.
‘When it gets to the point in a day when they are tired, I just point to the slogan on the wall and they understand they have to step it up,? he said.
At the festival, the four groups performed two songs of literature before a panel of judges before heading off to perform a sight-reading. Based on the scores, the groups received a score of superior, excellent, fair or poor, which is a change from the previous system of one being the highest grade and four being the lowest.
‘What they have done this past year is completely raise the standard to challenge groups to work harder,? said Card.
He noted that when this year’s group got the excellent rating, it was really like receiving a superior rating from the previous year.
‘The standard is what’s changed,? Card added. He explained that in order to receive a superior rating, a group has to incorporate all of the technical elements all of the time, but if a group is only doing some of the elements, it gets dropped to a excellent.
‘Even though you are doing an above average job, you have to be 100% consistent on every note, every measure to get a superior rating, and that is really difficult,? he said.
According to Card, heading to states is only the first step in his plan for international success for the OHS choirs.
‘It instills confidence that if we hit this goal, then we hit our next goal, which is success on a national level. Then three years from now, we are gunning for international level with a European tour,? Card said.
‘That’s ambitious, but if the kids know that we did it at the state level, then when I sell them on that three years from now that we are going to Europe, they’ll buy it and it’s not that pie in the sky anymore,? he added.
Card has been busy prepping his students for the state competition, with his goal of having all the students receive a superior rating.
‘We’ve specifically targeted the areas that we need to improve and we’ve put together a game plan pretty rapidly of those technical elements that aren’t up to superior standards and we’re going at them everyday,? said Card.