Listening to walker junior high school choir. live performance review

Walker Junior High Live Performance Review

On May 20, 2015, my friends and I visited Walker Junior High School, presenting a choir show entitled “ Through the Decades.” We decided to visit as a memory of being part of Walker’s choir. In addition, my boyfriend went along with us as well. Although we came to revisit the fond memories we created through the choir program at Walker, we also were curious how Walker’s program has changed for the better or worse.

Unlike high school choir shows, this show was of no cost. In this theme, all the choir classes sang songs from the 1800s onto present day music. Thus, they sang all genres from pop, rock, etc. Walker Junior High offers four different choir classes – two beginning choir periods, intermediate choir, and advanced choir. Beginning choir had a majority of 7th grades, with some 8th graders. Intermediate and Advanced typically had 8th graders, excluding the addition of 7th graders who had auditioned. Although there are differences between the ability of each class, they all had equal songs to perform on stage. Until the 2013-2014 school year, Walker had never performed in the auditorium of KPAC. For, all their performances had been in their main gym. However, since Walker had obtained a new choir teacher, Julie Eusebio, things have changed for the better since. Unlike the beginning classes, intermediate and advanced choir seemed to present more entertainment through dance.

In the beginning of the choir show, Walker had sung “ You Are the Music In Me” by High School Musical. Although I personally love HSM, I did not believe it was very unnecessary at parts. At first, all the classes had sung a chorus of “ You Are the Music In Me.” However, once they were done, one boy and girl had sung the entire song after. In addition to this, all the choir students had only sung the chorus. Personally, I did not like the repetitivity between the songs. In summary, Walker Jr. High had basically replayed the same song. In addition to this, the classes singing this song lacked energy while singing it. For, all they did to dance was stand there or clap side to side. Finally, I disliked how the students were exiting the stage as they were still singing the song.

Although there were some bad moments in the show, there was also interesting, entertaining moments. For example, in the show there was four guy group: Taylor Barry, Kolton Heskett, Roger Romero, and Darien Rodrick. At the beginning of the choir show, they had sung “ Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” by Beth Slater Whitson. Excluding the part of how adorable each of them were, they had good voices. With this performance, it truly lit up the audience as they enjoyed them as a whole. While singing, it as if they were a boyband. For, one boy would go up to sing a solo, while the rest of the boys danced in the background. In addition, it seemed as if the boys were having fun, which seemed to be lacked in all the other performances.

Aside from the Taylor, Kolton, Roger, and Darien’s performances, the audience seemed to like one of the classes singing “ We Will Rock You,” by Queen. Throughout the song, this class seemed to have the most energy compared to all the others. For, it seemed as if they truly enjoyed themselves on stage. In addition, the soloists really amazed the crowd. As a result of the soloists giving their best, it hyped up the crowd. Because of their amazing performance, they even lead the crowd to stomping their feet and clapping.

Throughout the choir show, there would be a student or Mrs. Eusebio giving some background relative to the song about to be sung. As a result of this, I felt as if it bored the audience. For, most of the show had been talking. Personally, most of the group I had went with disliked this as well. Because of the background information about the songs, it may have lost the interest of the audience. Thus, boring them as they put on a performance. If the background information had been taken out, the choir show could have had more songs. Overall, it seemed useless to have in the show.

In addition to this, there were some technical difficulties within the show. For example, Mrs. Eusebio had told the sound crew to stop a karaoke track in order to fix the microphone problem. Although the choir class had almost been almost halfway through the song, it was stopped and replayed. Once again, losing the interest of the audience. Through this, it was easy to show Walker did not have much experience practicing their songs on stage. From past experience, I know that Walker practices only a few hours before the performance unlike Kennedy Choir. If Walker had more days to practice on stage, problems such as technical ones would be avoided.

Overall, Walker seemed to lack energy within all the classes. Despite the soloists, there wasn’t much that was entertaining to watch. Although the classes may have sounded good, the entertainment level was low. In beginning classes, they rarely danced. For, they would either stand there singing or step clap. As a result of this, I think it has a great impact towards students progressing into high school choir. Unlike Walker’s choir, high school choir does not spend too much time learning a dance. In addition, it seemed as if some were bored or even lip singing. Even Walker’s Advanced Choir lacked energy. During the performances, sometimes the audience would be on their phones or distracted by something else. However, if Walker had shown more energy within their performances, the audience’s eyes would pay attention to them.

Overall, Walker’s Choir Show was cute overall. As a result of the amazing vocals of the soloist, it truly impressed me. Although there were moments where it was not entertaining to watch, the soloist truly hyped up the crowd. If I were to recommend Walker’s choir show, I would be indecisive about it. Although it is free, the program is quite short itself. Because of the major problems within the show, I would recommend seeing a high school choir show program instead., for it is more professional. However, Walker had a cute, memorial ending overall.