Two ensembles from the WT School of Music will go on tour, performing at multiple schools for high school students. The WT Chorale will travel to Houston, while the Symphonic band will perform in El Paso.
The Chorale is the top collegiate choir at WT and is a large ensemble. The group will leave Canyon on Sunday to travel to Houston, where they will perform at different schools in the area.
At some of these performances the group will perform with students at the schools, while at others they will do their recital alone. The group will not have much down time between performances, as they will return to Canyon Tuesday night.
“Part of why we are doing this is to show the high school kids down there what is going on in the Panhandle,” Blaze Diamond, a Senior Music Education major and member of the Chorale, said.
“Down in the Houston area there are some really good programs, but we want to show them that there are alternatives to going somewhere 20 minutes away from home and still get a great education.”
The program that the group will perform includes six songs, which range from a Renaissance piece to a contemporary piece in which the members of the Chorale all talk at the same time.
“Our songs range all over the board, but we are singing a lot of spiritual songs,” Diamond said.
The Symphonic Band will also leave Canyon on Sunday but will return from their tour on Wednesday. They will perform at a number of schools in El Paso this year, after travelling to the Metroplex area last year.
“We really use this as a recruitment tool,” Nathan Hoover, a Senior Music Business Major and Symphonic Band member, said. “We like to show these kids exactly how good the WT School of Music really is.”
The ensemble will also perform a wide variety of songs to show their multiple talents to the students, ranging from contemporary to classic songs.
These tours are a way that the School of Music can show how good of a program it is to any students considering going into music. There are multiple facets of the School of Music that make it one of the top music programs in the area.
“The music department here has the best faculty group I have ever seen,” B.J. Dyer, a Senior Music Education major and member of the Symphonic Band, said. “I don’t think there is a single weak instrument studio. Overall, the accommodations we have here allow each student to work hard and get ready for the next professional step, whether it’s music education, performance, business, composition or therapy.”
These tours allow the School of Music to share these qualities with many high school students, whether the students want to pursue a career in the vocal or instrumental arts.
