Greenville choir headed to NYC
GHS’S Wavaires are award winners. Show choir will perform at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
A Greenville GREENVILLE — High School show choir will take the stage for a solo performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on Saturday, June 9.
There, the Wavaires will give an 80-minute choral and dance performance that includes four costume changes.
“It’s very aerobic,” said Michele Smith, vocal music director for the Greenville High School Wavaires, a 25-member show choir and chamber ensemble. The group is accompanied by Terri Fryman.
“They’re exhausting to watch because of all of the movement,” said Ken Neff, Greenville High School principal. “What I love about them and all of Michele’s choirs is every kid is enthusiastic and participating.”
While other high school groups have performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smith said the Wavaires is the first to offer a fulllength show. The other high school groups performed two or three songs in a festival-type setting.
Smith said the invitation to perform came about because of the group’s long-standing reputation. Over the past few decades the Wavaires have performed at Disneyland and Walt Disney World multiple times. In addition, the group has won numerous show choir contests and was asked to perform for the Ohio governor, for the lighting of the state Christmas tree.
For Smith, who has taught vocal music for Greenville City Schools for 34 years, this will be the fifth time she has taken a GHS vocal group to New York City to perform.
In 2000, Smith took a chamber choir to New York City. Since then, a Greenville High School choir has traveled to New York City every three years. Among the places they’ve performed are Carnegie Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, South Street Seaport, the Statue of Liberty, St. Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero, the Riverside Church and the CBS Early Show.
“(The Wavaires) is one of the crown jewels of our school system and the community,” Neff said.
During the group’s sixday trip to New York this year, the Wavaires will show their diverse musical repertoire with other performances at Riverside Church and St. Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero. Smith said the group will offer three distinct performances. For instance, the Riverside Church performance will be a gospel cantata.
“The different environments they get to perform in is neat,” Neff said. “It’s great exposure for our kids to (perform in) a professional environment.”
The 25 high school students have been practicing for these performances since last July. While they’ve performed parts of their Jazz at Lincoln Center show to civic and other groups in the Greenville area, they have not given a public performance of the 80-minute show.
Before its Saturday, June 9, performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Wavaires will give a free public performance at 6:30 p.m. Monday at St. Clair Memorial Hall, 215 W. Fourth St., Greenville.
While in New York, the Wavaires members also will attend four Broadway shows, talk with the casts of “Wicked” and “War Horse,” and do some sightseeing.