This Week in Choir: Week 26

Good Afternoon Grissom Choir,

Congratulations to our 17 acts on such a wonderful 2025 Pizza & Pop!  We have such immense talent in Grissom Choir, and is a joy to see our students sharing it with their friends and family!


This Week in Choir…

Women’s Choir:
UAB Honor Choir
Finish cleaning Sing Out, My Soul & The Echo for Assessment

Men’s Choir:
UAB Honor Choir
Finish cleaning“Go” Said The Star & Firefly Darkness for Assessment

Concert Choir:
UAB Honor Choir
Finish cleaning Dies Irae & Shenandoah for Assessment

Chamber Choir:
UAB Honor Choir
Finish cleaning O Clap Your Hands & O Nata Lux for Assessment
Continue learning Laus Trinitati, Rest, Time, Fá Una Canzona, & Nachtwache
Continue learning Invictus & The Lord Bless You & Keep You, & the Alma Mater


UAB Honor Choir 
IT’S HERE! This spring, all 4 Grissom Choirs will be traveling down to Birmingham for the University of Alabama in Birmingham’s annual Honor Choir THIS COMING Monday, February 24th.  This honor choir is designed to affirm the participation of young singers in the vocal arts. The choir is comprised of high school students throughout the State of Alabama. Students work closely with the festival clinician in intense rehearsals focusing on musicianship skills, voice building, and ensemble performance. The choir also rehearses and performs side-by-side the collegiate choirs. Students will experience concerts and masterclasses, and will perform with seasoned professionals on traditional and exciting new choral repertoire.  A more detailed letter was emailed out last week with all information, and was handed out in class.  Please mark your calendars for this day!

Tidal Wave Auto Spa Fundraiser
This week, Grissom Choir will kick-off its last fundraiser of the school year, a final run of our Tidal Wave Auto Spa Car-Wash Fundraiser.  Each ticket can be sold for $10 (valued for the $20 Car Wash), of which $5 will go towards the student’s individual My Music Office Account.  This is an easy and fast way to raise money for Grissom Choir related fees!  Pre-Sell Ticket Order Forms will be available starting Tuesday, February 25th in the Grissom Choir room, and students will have around 2 weeks to sell.  Order forms will need to be turned in to the Grissom Choir Money Box in order to receive tickets once the fundraiser ends.  Please visit www.grissomchoir.com/fundraisers for more information this coming week!

Grissom Choral Assessment
Next week, our first annual Grissom Choral Assessment (GCA) will be held at Grissom High School on March 6th.  Each choir, alongside our three feeder middle school choral programs, will perform 2 songs in contrasting style that we have been working on this semester in front of a panel of 2 clinician.  These clinicians assess each choir in their execution and performance of these two songs, focusing on blend, balance, tone, rhythmic and note accuracy, musical phrasing, energy, etc.  Each choir will then be rated our performance based on a rubric and scoring sheet: I: Outstanding, II: Superior, III: Excellent,  IV: Good, & V: Fair.  Grissom Choir has had a history of being rated Outstanding & Superior in their performances, of which I am excited to continue with our students.  The on-stage choir is then given a post-performance one-on-one clinic & workshop with one of the adjudicators, which is designed to encourage, invigorate, and enforce the daily teachings of each department.  All of our choir’s assessments will take place during the normal school day.  All students will need to bring their complete concert uniform to school that day and may leave it in the women’s & men’s dressing rooms until their performance time.  As this is a performance, all students are expected to be at school and participate in this assessment for a Summative Performance Grade.  Please see below for the schedule for this day:

    Thursday, March 6th: A-day
        A1 - Chamber Choir (normal class time)
        A2 - Men’s Choir (normal class time)
        A3 - Concert Choir (will be excused from A1 class)
        A4 - Women’s Choir (will be excused from A4 class)

Grissom Choir Course Registration
All students should have received their Course Registration sheets for next school year.  It is my expectation that all current underclassmen choir students will continue to take choir. Should there be any student who does not plan on taking choir next year, please come and speak with me privately.  For students who are wishing to audition for The Chamber Choir, please register for the class using Mixed Chorus IV (Course Number: 05110G1004) on the course registration sheet.  All other students should register for The Concert Choir, which should be listed as Mixed Chorus III (Course Number: 05110G1003) on the course registration sheet. This is this same Course Names & Numbers as years prior. Based on both Concert & Chamber Choir auditions, I will relocate students back to Women’s/Mens Choir or to and from Concert & Chamber Choir.  Should there be any student that wishes to be in The Vocal Lab class (an entire class block that allows students to rehearse their All-City, All-State,Solo & Ensemble, and Pizza & Pop music!), please come and speak with me so that we can have the correct class listed on your course registration sheet upon director approval!


Sincerely,

Tucker Ratcliff
Choral Director | Grissom Choir
Webmaster & Editor | Alabama ACDA
Treasurer | Huntsville Choral Directors Association
(256) 428-8000 ext. 2271 | [email protected]