Efland-Cheeks students to join N.C. Elementary Honors Chorus November performance

Earlier this month, Efland-Cheeks Global Elementary students Christian Adkins and Amarah White were selected to perform with the North Carolina Elementary Honors Chorus. 

The North Carolina Music Educators Association will host the Honors Chorus in Winston-Salem at their annual conference on Nov. 10. The Honors Chorus typically receives over 600 audition recordings and selects around 180 of them, Efland-Cheeks Elementary Music Teacher Cheri Thomas said. The selected students will perform for their families and music educators from across the state. 

 “I feel happy that I get to go to Honors Chorus because it’s really fun to practice singing all the time and to go places to sing,” Adkins said. 

White said her love of singing began through her favorite songs and singing with her mom. 

“I feel proud because I want to be a singer when I grow up,” White said

Thomas said Adkins and White are excellent students who love music, and are delightful children to be around. 

Thomas oversees Efland-Cheeks’ after school chorus program, the Eagle Chorus.  She said she offered members of the group the option to learn the audition piece, “Sing for Joy” by G.F. Handel, and to submit their auditions. 

Thomas said the piece had difficult technical elements, including melismas, which is the singing of a single syllable across different notes. 

“That is challenging for anybody, especially children,” Thomas said. “So we worked a lot on how to properly sing that style of music.” 

Of the students in the Eagle Chorus, three submitted a recording to be judged, she said.  Multiple judges blindly score each audition, and average the totals together. 

“I will tell you that both of the girls who were selected scored very high,” Thomas said. “I was incredibly proud.”

Thomas said the students began their study of the performance pieces by focusing on their basic elements, including diction, rhythm and pitches, before polishing and correcting minor issues. 

“[Thomas] helped me by teaching me the right notes and when to take the right breaths” Adkins said. 

Thomas said she wants all her students to enjoy music for enjoyment's sake and to be well prepared if they want to take a band or chorus class later. 

Adkins and White will have the opportunity to work with an exceptional group of singers and an incredible guest conductor, Thomas said.  This year’s guest conductor is Maria Peña, the associate conductor and director of community choruses for the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. 

“I like to sing since I realized that I was actually pretty good at it, and if I practiced some more, it would help actually take me somewhere,” Adkins said.

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