THREE SHS STUDENTS ATTEND NORTHERN COLO. HONOR CHOIR
Three Sterling High School choir students — Annabelle Basgall, Faith Cole and Jasmine Mitchell — and their director, Annette Lambrecht, participated in the Northern Colorado Combined League Honor Choirs Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Union Colony Civic Center, in Greeley
The Sterling choir members joined students from Brush, Colorado Early Colleges, Dayspring, Eaton, Fort Collins, Fort Morgan, Fossil Ridge, Frederick, Frontier, Greeley Central, Greeley West, Highland, Loveland, Monarch, Mountain View, Peak to Peak, Prairie View, Ridgeview Classical, Riverdale Ridge, Rocky Mountain, Roosevelt, Severance, Standley Lake, Thompson Valley, University, Valley and Windsor High Schools.
After a day of learning about music, there were performances by the Mixed Choir, Treble Choir and Combined Choirs. Accompanied by Anna Hermanson, an active collaborative pianist in northern Colorado, and Linda Mcginn, who accompanies choirs in the Thompson School District and for the Laudamus Chamber, the choirs performed “In Meeting We Are Blessed,” “Hlohonolofatsa,” “Where the Light Begins,” “Secret for the Mad,” “My Good Lord’s Done Been Here,” “Sigue,” “Invitation to Love,” “Ol’ Time Religion,” “Crowded Table” and “Rise Shine!”
One of the clinicians for the day was Dr. Clelyn Chapin, who serves as the Associate Director of Choirs at the University of Northern Colorado, where she leads choral ensembles and teaches future music educators. In addition to her work at UNC, Dr. Chapin conducts the Denver Women’s Chorus, a 170-voice treble choir founded for members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community with a focus on social justice programming. As a clinician and presenter throughout the country, she focuses on a combination of rehearsal practices and leadership strategies that promote artistic singing and community building within ensembles.
Before beginning at UNC, Dr. Chapin spent 14 years teaching and conducting secondary, collegiate, and community ensembles in Texas, Colorado, and Michigan. Her choirs have been invited to perform at state conferences and she frequently serves as an adjudicator and clinician for choral festivals.
The second clinician was Seth Pendergast, who completed his PH.D. in Music Education at the University of Utah, where he taught and assisted with music education courses, choral ensembles, student teacher supervision, and held the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program Assistantship. He earned a Master’s in Music Education from Florida State University and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Southeastern University.
Throughout his doctoral program, Pendergast developed scholarship concerning adolescent involvement in current and emerging school-based music courses. For his dissertation study, he explored the relationship between secondary school music participation and students’ music activities in both formal and informal contexts. His most recent publications include two book chapters on technology-based music courses, which appear in the textbook General Music: A K—12 Experience (Kendall Hunt Publishers). Pendergast has presented his research at national and state music education conferences.
He is also an active clinician, conductor, and adjudicator. Pendergast frequently leads professional development sessions, clinics, festivals, and honor choirs at various schools, districts, conferences, and universities, both locally and nationally. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, Society for Music Teacher Education, Society for Research in Music Education, and Technology Institute for Music Educators.