At the May 8 North Royalton Board of Education meeting, both the band and choir were recognized for an incredible season of performances and accomplishments.
The North Royalton High School Choirs performed their traditional four concerts. They also have been on some exciting adventures that led them to new performance opportunities and experiences. They started off the year with a trip to Baldwin Wallace Conservatory for a masterclass with a Canadian choral composer, Sarah Quartel, who wrote one of our fall concert pieces. This year, all of the North Royalton choir students were invited to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus to perform for the legislation during the holiday season.
North Royalton was also a part of the first annual Suburban League Honor Choir. They had nine seniors invited to attend the day-long clinic with Dr. Apfelstadt and 150 other choir students from the Suburban League. It concluded with an inspiring, culminating concert.
Speaking to the Board members and audience about their experiences were Royal Harmony’s president, librarian and historian. Royal Harmony is the high school’s competitive show choir.
“Between the three competitions we attended, we earned two best combo awards, two people’s choice awards, and qualified for finals and achieved 4th overall,” said Royal Harmony President Gabe Wood. “These are some of the highest rankings Royal Harmony has received in the group’s 10-year history. We are gearing up for auditions for next year and we are thrilled to announce that we have hired a professional choreographer, Dallas James Pritt, to help take our group to the next level.”
Royal Harmony Librarian Chaela Mlecik stated that each year they host an OMEA Pre-Contest Concert where all three choirs perform for adjudicators. All choirs this year received 1s and 2s or excellent and superior ratings at the pre-contest concert. Royal Harmony competed at OMEA Districts and received straight 1s or a superior rating and qualified for states for the first time in a long time for NRHS Choirs. “And we traveled to OMEA states and received an excellent rating,” said Mlecik. “This was a major accomplishment for the choir program.”
The North Royalton choirs took a choir trip for the first time in a while. They spent three days in Chicago exploring the city, seeing different productions, singing at the Field Museum, and having a masterclass clinic at Vandercook College of Music. “It was an awesome opportunity to build more relationships with our choir family and have several new, cool experiences,” said Royal Harmony Historian Colin Finnecy. “We also were able to host Acappellooza last week Tw0 acapella groups from North Royalton High School and two groups from Strongsville High School came together in a night of singing to share a variety of fun tunes and then joined voices in a rousing last number of ‘Sweet Caroline.’ It was a really fun night!”
Final Applause, the last performance of the school year, will be Wednesday, May 17 at 7 p.m.m in the Performing Arts Center. It is free and open to the public.
Director of Bands David Vitale also spoke about the tremendous year the North Royalton High School Band Program had, adding many accolades to their long list of accomplishments.
At the Revere competition, the band placed fourth in Class AA and won Best Auxiliary and Best Visual.
At the Norton competition, the band placed third in Class AA and won Best Overall Auxiliary.
At the Swanton competition, the band placed first in Class AA and won Best Overall Auxiliary, Best Overall Percussion, Best Overall General Effect and Grand Champion Overall.
At the OMEA State Finals, the band received a Superior Overall Rating. This marks the 32nd consecutive Superior Rating at the OMEA State MB Finals.
The North Royalton High School music department also had four Concert Bands attend the OMEA District Adjudicated Event, and three achieved Superior Ratings (qualifying for State Finals) and one Band received an “Excellent” rating. They also had three Concert Bands participate in the OMEA State Adjudicated Event, hosted at North Royalton High School, and all three bands received Superior Ratings. North Royalton was also the only school that had a Class AA Wind Ensemble that received Straight Superior Ratings from every adjudicator.
Band President Elijah Ondrish, Field Commander Marija Djordjevic, and Sophomore Rep. Ethan Ondrish