Will Boyce ’15 | Staff Writer

South’s choirs had not participated in a  show choir competition since the 80’s, but  under the new direction of Christopher Pratt, they have gone to two, placing second in their first, and sweeping the Grand Champion award in their second.

Pratt has experience with show choir competitions, having taken his previous choir, the Center Grove Sound System to these competitions on a regular basis.

This weekend, the Tower Belles, South’s all-girl choir, and the Pointe Singers, South’s most advanced choir, attended the Teays Valley Classic in Ohio. The Tower Belles competed in the all-girl choir division, and the Pointe Singers in the mixed division.

Both choirs received the acclaim of Grand Champion in their respective competitions. Not only did they sweep the competitions in which they participated, they also won many other individual honors.

“One of the things I like to do is plan to win. You plan to go in there and give the best show; you have to put everything you can towards the final product,” said Pratt. “Planning to be the best product we can be at the competition is how I plan.”

Scoring is based on four major categories: vocals, choreography, show, and instrumentals. Both choirs were the best in all four of those categories, however they were not eligible to claim the trophy in instrumentals because the choirs have it done professionally, Pratt said.

“This semester especially things have really been clicking with the Tower Belles and the Pointe Singers, I think they started to see why we were doing some of the things we were doing in the fall that may have been new, like a regular rehearsal schedule,” said Pratt. “And once we got into competition, a lot of that stuff really started to make sense to them.”

In each category, there is an award for outstanding individual performer, South swept those honors as well. Lydia Burton ’15 won outstanding performer for the all girls choir division, and Grace Muawad ’15 won for the mixed category.

“There are so many incredible performers in Pointe Singers, and truly everyone deserved that award,” said Muawad. “We have all worked incredibly hard since summer to perfect our show. Last weekend, we all gave our best performances, and I think we can definitely say that  we left it on the stage.”

An individual judge watches all the performances and takes notes on performers, watching and studying to eventually select an outstanding performer from each division at the end of all the shows, Pratt said.

Pratt was not surprised to see Muawad and Burton win, but that’s something he could say about any of my performers, he said.  On any given day, it could be anyone else depending on who is putting forth their best performance.

South also won the award for best solo performance.  A total of 40 soloists competed and Angela Dusina ’13 won the best soloist acclamation.

“I think it’s great that our choir department was successful in return to competition, because that’s not always the case with schools who take a break. I think now we have the experience and now we’re going to be that much further ahead when we do this in the future,” said Pratt. “The thing that I like about competition is that it has really unified them as a team; we get to go out and see the product you’re bringing to stage and how that relates to other schools, and it’s awesome that what we’re doing is at the top of competitions we’re going to.”