Oxford High School choirs posted some top notch scores during District Choral Festival, which was held at OHS on Monday, March 14.
Four choirs sang and did sight readings before a panel of judges and when the results came back, two choirs, concert choir and men’s choir received superior ratings, while chorale and women’s choir received excellent ratings.
‘It was a great week; each of the groups got really outstanding compliments,? OHS choir director Christopher Card said. ‘The program is going in a direction that the standard is being raised, and that feels good towards all our groups.?
At choir festival, the lower the score a group receives from the panel of judges means a better category result for the performance group.
The concert choir received a score of 29. According to Card, one of the judges wrote about the concert choir performance, ‘I have never been brought to tears as a judificator before in over 35 years until now.?
Men’s choir received a score of 30. Choral received a score of 36, while women’s choir scored a 37. The cut-off score between superior and excellent was set at 32.
‘To get four or five points away from superior is really still the cream of the crop,? Card said.
All of the scores were at least 10 points better than their scores last year during District Choral Festival.
Card noted there was a significant change to one of the judging categories.
He said the judges retooled the superior status in order to make it more difficult for groups to obtain superior status.
‘They made it a gold level status they never had before,? he said.
All four groups will now head on to the state choral festival, which will be held May 3-4 at Rochester High School.