A Weekend of Wonder

This weekend was the twenty sixth annual Jefferson Show choir Invitational. I was excited because it was the last local show choir competition of the year for Kennedy High School. The competition began with the vocal jazz ensembles. Our group, Moonlight Express, was amazing, and I am not just saying that because my girl friend had three solos in the group. The critique was pretty much praise and a few things that we might try doing that may or may not be necessary. It turned out that we got one of two outstanding performances from the night. That was the perfect beginning and it only got better. Next was Chamber Choir. They performed the next morning. I knew was a good sign when the critic, who had been super critical of the group before us, could only say wow. He gave compliment after compliment and in the end, Chamber Choir received first place. Our ninth grade show choir, Chanteurs, has been getting better and better this year especially and we already knew they were good but it became clear at this venue. We were sitting at the awards ceremony just waiting for there name in the prep division. Sixth, fifth, fourth and not the slightest mention of there name. When he got to third, the announcer said "and competing up a division...." and we knew Chanteurs had gotten third. It was an amazing accomplishment for our ninth grade only group to beat established Junior and Sophomore groups. What happened next was still better though. They kept announcing prep division awards and they kept coming to Protege, our Sophomore and Junior prep group. They received Best Male Soloist, Best Band, Best Choreography, Best Vocals, and Grand Champions of the prep division. When they went to the awards for the Varsity division I was scared. We had given it our best but our director said that the sound system was not on so we could not be heard very well. We were really hoping that we would do well so that we could have proof that we were a good show choir. Every time they announced a name it was a relief that it wasn't us. when they got to the captions, we got Best Band and then they announced that we had won the day round! We had done it even without a sound system so the next challenge was to keep it through the finals. We gave it our all and so did Protege.(plus the sound system was on) When they announced awards I had deja vu. They called sixth, fifth, and fourth without calling Protege's name. We had done it again. A group from Kennedy competing a division up had gotten third place. Then they did the caption awards. I thought we had lost it at first because Milton got Best Choreography but then they said Happiness inc had received Best Vocals and were the Grand Champions! We had finally done. Happiness inc 2010 had proved that they could be a winning show choir. We stormed the stage and everyone from Kennedy celebrated. In case you lost count, (cause I almost did), Cedar Rapids Kennedy groups had won every division and brought home 13 trophies altogether! It was truly the dream competition for my school and I couldn't have been happier.