Five Okotokians are warming up their vocal chords for a competition that will stack them against the province’s top young singers.
Singing teacher Naomi Koch is preparing students Paul Grahame, Georgia Pugh, Julia Bichel, Derek Henry and Sarah Nightingale for the Provincial Music Festival in Edmonton May 28 to June 3. They were selected during the Highwood Lions Music Festival in High River last month. Grahame was also selected to compete in provincials during the Calgary Performing Arts Festival.
“They are really well prepared,” said Koch. “They all have the potential to do really well.
“They are demonstrating their songs through the eyes of their characters and not themselves.”
The singing teacher of 15 years said it’s not unusual for her students to compete at the provincial level.
After selecting songs in January, she and the students spent three months perfecting their performances.
“It’s about the acting, it’s about the vocals, it’s about the way we stage it, character development and finding the right piece for the students that really suits their character,” she said.
Grahame will perform two songs in musical theatre in the 16-and-under age category.
He’ll sing the ballad The Moon and Me from the musical The Addams Family, which he performed at the High River festival, and the up-tempo song The Plane is Going Down, a comedic performance about a paranoid flyer that Grahame performed at the Calgary festival last month.
“It really plays up the fact that this guy really doesn’t want to be there in the plane,” he said. “He sings about certain aspects of his fear.”
In The Moon and Me, Grahame plays Uncle Fester who is infatuated with the moon. He even plays a piece on the oboe.
Musical theatre is nothing new for Grahame. He has been in three StoryBook Theatre productions in Calgary and will perform in its summer production Westside Story.
Unlike Grahame, Henry is new to singing and acting. That didn’t stop his musical theatre up-tempo song A Friend Like Me from the musical Aladdin or his ballad I Want to Fly from the musical Flight of the Lawnchairman from making provincials in the 17 to 24 age category. He is also performing in Westside Story this summer.
The self-proclaimed class clown is taking this achievement seriously by spending 30 to 45 minutes a day perfecting his pitches and tones in preparation for provincials.
“I felt I could be a lot better,” he said. “I always want to keep improving. To get better you have to get yourself outside the comfort zone.”
Bichel placed in the top five at Provincials last year.
Her musical theatre ballad My Friend the Dictionary from the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in the 12-and-under age category impressed the adjudicator enough to advance her to provincials again this year.
But finding the perfect song this year wasn’t easy.
“There was a lot of songs that didn’t really speak to me,” she said. “It took a while for me and Naomi to find a song that really fit me. I heard this one and knew right away it was my song.”
Bichel plays a nerdy character whose dictionary is her best friend. To prepare for provincials, Bichel has been practicing at home.
“Halfway through the song I have to burst out laughing,” she said. “It’s kind of awkward. I have to work on that and make it less awkward.”
Nightingale also faces some challenge with her classical vocal solo Marienwurmchen, a German song about a girl who wants a ladybug to land on her hand and then fly away again to see its wings.
While German is Nightingale’s first language, she said the song is quite complicated.
“The timing is very difficult and the chorus is different in all three verses,” she said. “I was hoping I wasn’t going to make a mistake.”
Nightingale nailed the song, as well as the classical vocal solo Spring is Singing in the Garden, qualifying her for provincials for the first time.
“I wasn’t really expecting to (make it to provincials) but I was very happy,” she said. “I like the challenge.”
This is also Pugh’s first time at provincials. She will perform in the 12 and under age category with the musical theatre up tempo song Sayonara from the musical How to Eat Like a Child about a young girl who is angry at her parents and wants to run away.
“I’m really excited but I’m also really nervous,” she said. “I know it’s going to be way harder than most of my competitions. Most of the time I know the people because they’ve been in it last year and the year before. Here it’s people all around the province.”
