High School Invitational


High School Invitational

REGIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL

The halls of Masconomet High School were filled with the sounds of singing, and lots of it recently.

The Masconomet choir, along with choirs from Danvers and Pentucket high schools, participated in a choir clinic and festival with Lyricora, a professional classical singing group, based on the North Shore.

The young singers rehearsed with C. Thomas Brooks, director of Lyricora and music department chairman at Gordon College in Wenham, through the afternoon on Saturday, May 10. Then, the three high school choirs and Lyricora joined together for an evening concert.

The choirs each sang prepared pieces of their own in addition to the joint numbers.

“My students were absolutely thrilled by the event,” said Brian Ocock, choir director at Masco, in an e-mail to Town Crossings.

“In particular, the activity of having students mix in with the Lyricora chorus for joint numbers was a big hit. Students found it very beneficial to sing with professionals,” said Ocock. “Each chorus made marked improvement in their respective clinic times during the afternoon. As a result of working in front of peer choirs, they held themselves even more accountable to improvement for the concert that evening.”

Ocock said it was a unique experience to conduct the Masco choir and sing with his group, Lyricora, all in the same concert. Several members of Lyricora are music educators in the Boston area, he said.

“My decision to participate in this was an easy one in that I am one of the founding members of Lyricora. As a professional group, we are always seeking venues of performance and since many of us in the group are teachers, we also see this need to impart our professionalism and musical accomplishment to our own students,” he said.

“I love performing with my students as a conductor, also as an accompanist and also as a solo singer. Not that I feel like a show off, but I like to sing in a way that makes the student believe that they can attain what I do as well. I hope that as we (Lyricora) can perform more in the area, more interest will develop in who we are and what we do.”

 —Glasgow Daily Times