FeedsPlymouth-Canton choir featured on NBC
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Plymouth Canton Educational Park Festival Singers celebrate their first-place showing during the 2007 Music in the Park competition at Cedar Point last May. The young performers are among four choirs showcased during the Clash of the Choirs competition oA group of singers from Canton, Plymouth and Salem high schools will keep their television dials on NBC this week.
The Plymouth-Canton Educational Park Festival Singers have been selected as semi-finalists in the NBC Clash of the Choirs “Holiday Moments” contest.
The district singers were selected from hundreds of choirs throughout the world to be one the four featured during a special promo section broadcast during each telecast. As semi-finalist, a video clip of the choir performing their arrangement of the holiday classic Deck the Halls will be shown during a commercial break of the prime time four-day competition.
“I believe that we had a chance to make it,” said Jennifer L. Kopp, the choir director and music teacher for the 36-member performance group.
Kopp, who has directed the Festival Singers since 2000, said the choir has the type pedigree that warrants national recognition. The group has performed in Carnegie Hall as well was won multiple choir competitions throughout the country. The Festival Singers average between 30 to 40 performances each school year and will have their first international performance in Toronto this spring.
Kopp said she received an email from NBC on Monday informing them of their semi-finalist status. She did not receive confirmation as to when the choir performance will be broadcast.
“I don’t know when it will air but it’s likely, assumed that it will,” she said. Clash of the Choirs airs at 8 p.m. through Thursday night.
Clash of the Choirs is a national competition featuring five-20 member choirs led by music stars Patti LaBelle, Michael Bolton Nick Lachey, Blake Shelton and Kelly Rowland. Viewers will vote for their favorite choirs and the grand prizewinner will be crowned Thursday night.
Diana DeAngelis, a senior member of the Festival Singers said their national television debut ranks up there with anything the choir has done.
“I’m really excited. I’m so excited to be seen on TV,” said DeAngelis, a 17-year-old Salem High School student from Canton Township.
The semi-finalist ranking is the most recent honor bestowed on the district music department in the past four weeks. In November, the district marching band was ranked as the seventh best high school marching band in the country after competing in a national competition in Indianapolis.
For more information on the Festival Singers visit www. pcepchoirs.org.
