Washington to add a cappella choir

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington school board voted unanimously Jan. 10 to greenlight an a capella club at the district’s high school, open to any members of the choir class.

High School Choir Director Alex Siron said he hoped to see the building’s vocal music department step up its extracurricular options which are more established for school band members.

“The kids want to show more, they want to do more vocally, and they don’t necessarily have the opportunities,” he said. “Show choir’s hopefully going to be coming soon on the list, but the easier one to tackle first is a capella. It’s just one of the ideas to get these kids more involved in the program, more invested into it. Right now, all they have is just one choir.”

Auditions are not yet formally scheduled for the club, but Siton said they would happen “as soon as possible,” to get the activity running before this school year’s end.

Siron said the choral style, defined by its lack of musical accompaniment, would train students to better carry songs through their voices, rather than instrumental backing.

“The idea behind this is to not only give them some more fun music to sing, but to strengthen their ears, their voices so they can depend less on me horribly tapping on a keyboard, and more on themselves to be in-tune with each other,” he said.

The group would ideally have 9-15 members: enough to hit a wide range of sounds without too much overlap between voice parts, according to Siron. Costs of the program would depend on its size, but run roughly $25-$50 per song, with about 10 songs per year.

Siron said the club would give choir students more chances to perform in the community, if they auditioned successfully. He said there was local demand for small, hired performances at small business functions and sporting events, as well as for seasonal carolers.

But with the current choir roster being a class of 31 students, he said he couldn’t reliably get the whole group to show up after the end of the school day.

A dedicated, out-of-class group, would better fill the niche for community outreach, according to Siron, who said things like Valentine’s Day singing grams could potentially help fund the program.

“The goal would be to fundraise a little bit, maybe the activities budget pays a song, we pay a song,” he said. “I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when a choir department is a drainer, rather than a giver.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com