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93 Counties is a weekly show hosted by students at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Each episode is a story from one of the 93 counties in Nebraska, rural and urban, from the panhandle to the Missouri River.
This is the Aquinas Catholic High School Show Choir. A small school with a big passion to try everything with the resources they have. Welcome to 93 Counties, a podcast about Nebraska and the people that call it home. I'm Brandon McMiller.
Nolan Benbow:And I'm Nolan Benbow. On March 25th, Forte, the mixed show choir at Aquinas Catholic High School in Butler County competed with 8 other choirs at the Northeast Community College Jazz and Show Choir Festival in Norfolk, Nebraska. Costumes packed, equipment loaded, and students buzzing. The Aquinas Catholic High School show choir loaded on a bus heading to Norfolk, Nebraska at 10 AM and traveled 71 miles away from home. They weren't alone.
Nolan Benbow:8 other show choirs made the trip to the Northeast Community College Jazz and Show Choir Festival to share the shows they've been working on all year and compete for the final time this season. Forte director Shelby Schoneman says competition days bring mixed emotions.
Shelby Schaunaman:My mindset going into competitions is I'm so excited for the kids because they've worked so hard up until this point, and I'm just excited for them to get out there and show people what they're capable of. With that comes a little bit of nerves. As we arrive, I was just thinking about all the logistics. Do all the kids have what they need? Are the instruments tuned?
Shelby Schaunaman:Are we where we need to be? Did we check-in? And making sure that the kids are just settled and ready to go and that everyone is as stressed as little as possible. Okay.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. Go ahead. I never figured out.
Nolan Benbow:After unloading the bus, the members of Forte set their things down on the gym bleachers. Shelby gave the kids 20 minutes to unwind and prepare themselves for warm ups. It's 10:20, and the group is escorted to a private room near the auditorium. Time to warm up. 25 minutes before they go on stage.
Nolan Benbow:The next 25 minutes are dedicated to cleaning up sections of the show.
Shelby Schaunaman:Backstage. Opening Spots.
Nolan Benbow:The kids start running through their full show. Specs of gold glitter fall from the girls' dresses as they are spun by their partners.
Shelby Schaunaman:Especially if it's summer, I always say watch your posture.
Shelby Schaunaman:your shoulders backwards. Right? Otherwise, it hurts our sound, and it also just gives you a much more, like, confidence and meaningful presence when we have our tall posture.
Nolan Benbow:Time is almost up. Shelby reminds the kids to have fun.
Shelby Schaunaman:Just have fun with it. Leave it all out on the stage. Whatever happens, happens. And if you make a mistake, just smile and keep going. I am very serious
Nolan Benbow:The group then comes together with a prayer. The kids kill time while they wait to be ushered to the stage. A group gathers by the piano, playing and singing some classics. The drummer keeps his hands busy by tapping his part on the rim of his snare drum. A room host comes by to let the director know it's time to head to the stage.
Nolan Benbow:The excitement starts to mix with nervous energy as the kids line up in their costumes in the hallway and prepare to head backstage.
Brandon McMiller:This competition is at the Cox Activity Center on Northeast Campus. High school and middle school show choirs from the tier 3 and 4 divisions get the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. Judges are hired for this event to score the performing groups. They sit at the back of the auditorium, scoring them on their tone, intonation, musicality, effective use of choreography, band balance, and more. High performance scores from the judges may earn the group a superior rating and will determine how they rank in the division.
Brandon McMiller:In the Midwest, show choir is a big deal. There are more than 160 programs in Nebraska alone. Many schools offer more than one group for students to audition and participate in. Show choir competition season starts in January and lasts until the end of March. But preparing for the competition season can start as early as July.
Brandon McMiller:There are over 47 competitions in Nebraska that these schools are preparing for. These competitions give Show Choir participants a chance to show what they've been working on all year, support other programs, receive feedback from judges, and maybe take home a trophy.
Nolan Benbow:Aquinas Catholic School is a class c school in David City with a 10 to 1 student teacher ratio. They have 17 singers and 6 band members in their show choir forte. They rehearse 2 times a week at 6:45 AM. Class a schools typically have closer to 50 or 60 kids in their show choirs and compete between 4 to 6 times in their season. More competitions means more practice.
Nolan Benbow:Aquinas has smaller numbers, and performers participate in lots of other activities. That makes it harder to schedule competitions. Sometimes, there just aren't enough kids who can attend. Schools in rural areas also have to travel further to competitions, another stressor for the parents, the staff, and the participants. But once the students arrive at the competition, all of the hard work it took to get there pays off.
Brandon McMiller:10:55. It's showtime. The judges are at the table in the back of the auditorium, pins and score sheets at the ready. The kids walk on beaming. They get the drum hit from the band and begin their show.
Brandon McMiller:Their first song, Try Everything by Shakira
Brandon McMiller:The choir performs in black and gold costumes under beaming lights in the Northeast Auditorium. The show consists of 4 songs, Try Everything, Skyfall, Power of Love and Putting on the Ritz. They step, they touch, and they spin trying to hold on to every note they got in the room room for their 20 minute show. But the most important, to smile and have fun. The audience cheers loudly in support as the band plays forte off the stage.
Brandon McMiller:Freshman alto Anna Meysenburg, came off the stage confidently.
Anna Meysenburg:It feels really good to, like, go out there and show what I can do and just, like, dance my little heart out.
Brandon McMiller:Amy and Matt Masek are Bishop Newman show choir parents. Their niece is in the Forte show band.
Amy Masek:Our daughter, Hallie, she's a senior Bishop Newman and she is in the show choir. And then our niece, Grace, is goes to Aquinas. She's a sophomore and she is in the band for the show choir.
Matt Masek:She played trumpet.
Brandon McMiller:How long have you been a show choir parent?
Matt Masek:As a show choir parent, we have been Since 2016. 2016. We have 3 kids, and we have twins that graduated in 2020. One of the twins started as a freshman playing singing in the show choir, and then the other twin is a daughter. She started her senior year and played in the The band.
Matt Masek:The band section of it. And then our other daughter who graduates this year, she's been in all 4 years. So the last 8 years we've been doing show choir.
Brandon McMiller:Okay. The Muschick family have show choir roots. Matt was a member of the David City High swing choir in the nineties.
Matt Masek:I did show choir when I was in high school a long time ago and I enjoyed it and so when they when they asked about doing it I'm like yeah go ahead I enjoyed it I think you would too And so we let went down that path.
Brandon McMiller:High school students are busy, and show choir is a big time commitment. Many students participate in athletics, have jobs, or other obligations, which conflict with the sometimes grueling competition schedule. Matt, past president of the Parent Booster Club, says smaller schools with smaller choirs have a hard time ensuring enough performers can attend competitions.
Matt Masek:So when we schedule for show choir competitions on making sure that they don't overlap with something. There is a competition that we used to go to that was in Wahoo as a Wahoo festival. A lot of bigger schools would go to, and it was actually tailored towards bigger schools. It fell on the same weekend as state wrestling and state cheer. And last year, which was last year we went, we had 8 of our I think it was actually 9 of our 20 kids that were gone.
Matt Masek:So we have about almost half of our It it was bad. Was performing. We did great, but it was It was it was rough because we were so I mean, so trying to find competitions where we can I I'd like we have yet to have an entire performance where we have had everybody at
Brandon McMiller:Amy says that the busy schedules of the student performers is both a positive and a negative?
Amy Masek:It kind of goes both ways because if they do get stretched and they get tired and then they get sick or they get whatever, and that can really be very stressful for them. But I do think it helps them to learn time management and also that you can enjoy different things. You don't have to just like sports or just like music. You can like whatever you would like.
Nolan Benbow:Forte's opening number is try everything, a perfect motto for Aquinas. These kids come from a community where they are encouraged to try everything. After the performance, Forte debriefs. They share their opinions about the show and how they all did. There's some downtime before awards, so the kids prepare to load the buses and grab some pizza.
Nolan Benbow:Shelby Schoneman, director of Forte, takes her first sigh of relief since entering the building. We get the chance to ask her about what it takes to put a show together for Forte. She says picking the show for the season is a tricky process.
Shelby Schaunaman:I start picking the music and picking the show in the spring. I work on choreography in the summer. And then before school starts, we meet as a show choir and we have show choir camps. So I'll meet with them for a week, a couple hours each day, learning the music and putting together some of the choreography. This is a huge advantage because we knock out a lot in a short amount of time.
Shelby Schaunaman:It's a challenge though because once school starts, I don't meet with the kids again until late October. When March event season ends, then I start seeing the kids every Tuesday Thursday each week at 6:45 to start putting together our show for the rest of the year. As a director, I teach the vocals. I choreograph the show. I teach the choreography.
Shelby Schaunaman:I work on the details, the staging, blocking. I had to do some sewing with my mom this year on some of the dresses and, just all the all the details are are my responsibility.
Nolan Benbow:Shelby says that resourcefulness is a required skill for smaller show choir programs.
Shelby Schaunaman:Kinda have to be, creative sometimes in the aspect of, like, my mom had to help me with a sewing project this year. I couldn't hire someone to do it. I do choreograph our own show instead of having someone choreograph it. Sometimes the kids will actually help choreograph, not necessarily this year, but like last year, they helped choreograph. So just kind of being resourceful
Nolan Benbow:Shelby says it is worth it.
Shelby Schaunaman:My favorite part about directing the group is the kids. The kids are the reason that I do it. Watching them grow as musicians and grow as people is by far the most rewarding part.
Nolan Benbow:The kids aren't the only ones trying everything at Aquinas. Shelby tries every rule and uses every resource to make sure the kids have a great experience and leave better because of it.
Brandon McMiller:It's 2:40 PM and all the performing groups from the tier 3 level have packed into the gym. The feeling in the room is equal parts exhaustion and excitement as the choirs wait anxiously to see who will take home awards.
Awards:In 3rd place, Aquinas.
Brandon McMiller:Aquinas won 3rd place this season. They celebrate their victory as if it was the grand championship. Shelby says it all comes back to doing what you love and trying everything.
Shelby Schaunaman:We might not have the resources or the opportunities that the bigger schools have, but we really just share the same love for what we do. And we just wanna do our best and put our best foot forward. And that is what is so cool about music, is that you can have different backgrounds. You can come from different school sizes. You can come from different parts of the world if we're, like, looking at big perspective.
Shelby Schaunaman:And and music just really brings you together. And so I would just want people to know that we really, truly do share that same connection through music, and and we love that.
Brandon McMiller:And produced by me, Brandon McMiller.
Nolan Benbow:And me, Nolan Bembo, in collaboration with Advanced Audio Concept Creation and 90.3 KRNU. 93 counties is a KRNU Studios production from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Thank you for listening.