The Berryville High School Encore Choir has been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in June 2022, the only high school choir chosen from Northwest Arkansas. The Encore Choir will perform Nine Lessons in collaboration with the Celebration Choir, an adult teaching choir, at 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 9, at the new Performing Arts Center on Bobcat Dr. in Berryville behind the high school buildings. Nine Lessons and Carols details the birth of Christ in scripture and songs.
The performance is free and open to the public with an opportunity to donate to the local food pantry, Loaves and Fishes. Following the concert, the Berryville Choir Boosters will host a candlelight dinner catered by Sparky’s Roadhouse Café. Tickets to the dinner are $20 a plate with proceeds going towards the New York trip. Those interested in purchasing dinner tickets early can contact the Berryville Choir office by emailing bwinn@berryville.k12.ar.us or calling (870) 480-4625.
Berryville Choir Director Benjamin C. Winn said their students have shown tremendous growth and have demonstrated professionalism as a choral program in the past couple of years. Growing from two high school ensembles totaling 40 members, they currently have an enrollment of 220 students across six middle school and high school choirs.
“This makes up for about twelve percent of the Berryville School District K-12 population,” Winn said. “Encore, our auditioned group at Berryville High School, currently has qualified at the state level for the past three consecutive years. We also have multiple students who have been awarded honors at the regional, state, and national level. Because of these many accomplishments on our students, in the spring of 2021, Dr. Lorrisa Mason, who is the director of choral activities at The University of Arkansas in Little Rock, invited Berryville Encore to perform alongside her choirs at Carnegie Hall in New York City in late June.”
At Carnegie Hall, Berryville students will perform Francis Poulenc’s masterwork, “Gloria,” alongside UALR and several other high school choirs from Central Arkansas.
Winn said the wording in their competition guidelines states that a superior ensemble in the state of Arkansas is “worthy of the distinction of being recognized as among the very best.
“Because of our success in the state and Carroll County, Berryville has garnered much attention from the choral music community with state college choir directors actively seeking to recruit our students to their college choral programs.
“One of my personal goals as a music educator is to provide opportunities for our musicians that they will be unable to repeat,” Winn said. “As their choir director, this is something I remain passionate about after eight years of teaching. I’m excited that I will also be able to share in this fantastic experience with them as both a teacher and a professional vocalist.”
“We have been rehearsing Poulenc outside of class with the help of some local clinicians such as Sharon Keck Parker, Marsha Havens, and my predecessor, Vicki Shutters,” Winn said. “I know that in addition to singing some college level music with a full orchestra at Carnegie Hall, my students are also excited they will get to see a Broadway show during their time in New York.”
The offer has boosted the morale of their musicians, and increased interest in the program, especially from incoming freshmen for next year.
Winn said their collaboration with The Celebration Choir of Carroll County is a great precursor for their performance Dec. 9, ensemble competitions in the spring and their performance in New York. They will have a total of 55 singers in the Nine Lessons performance because of this collaboration. “My students enjoy working with our very compassionate musicians from The Celebration Choir and admire how passionate and confident they are in that ministry,” he said.
A significant number of Encore members experienced no in-person performances due to the uncertain dangers of the pandemic. By working with the Celebration Choir, students having a model to mirror in both technique and professionalism is priceless, Winn said.
Sharon Parker, executive director of The Celebration Choir and assistant director of Encore, said the Celebration Choir is still only at about half strength—down to 15 from the usual 30 participants—because some former singers are still not comfortable performing because of Covid-19.
Parker said the high school singers and those from the choir are all fully vaccinated. “The kids can’t go to New York if they aren’t vaccinated,” Parker said. “They won’t even let you in the door. We have had our vaccines and our boosters. Right now, it is safe to go listen to music indoors.”