With the fall competition season done, it’s time to take a look back at the early (okay, maybe extra early) season winners and placers to see who rides the hot hand into the winter competition season!
Nov. 4: Scottsbluff Old West Choir Fest
Final Results
GC: Vista PEAK “Ascencion”
1RU: Sidney “Sidney State of Mind”
2RU: Vista Ridge “Rhythm”
Finalists: Vista PEAK “Aspyre” (BC), Chadron “Cardinal Singers”, Kimball “New Dimension”
As expected, Vista PEAK won its second consecutive Old West Choir Fest, and seasoned observers shouldn’t be surprised that former winners Sidney and Vista Ridge rounded out the podium. The real surprise here is that Vista PEAK Aspyre took home Best Choreography, the only caption award at the contest, and didn’t place in the top three. Clearly things were tight this year! (The matter isn’t helped by the fact that Scottsbluff takes seven groups to finals and publicly announces three places.) Kimball qualified for its first Old West finals since 2021 by winning the 2A division over Harvard, who won the division last year. It was an even longer streak broken for Chadron, who made the evening round for the first time since 2012. For perspective, current Lincoln Northwest director Jon Marquez was in his first year of directing at Chadron back then! These results ultimately won’t have a ton of play in the overall show choir scene. There’s a chance that Sidney, Chadron or Kimball competes at Alliance in February and Vista PEAK will be at Colorado states in April looking to repeat again. New this year: Vista Ridge is hosting an event in March, but it looks to be noncompetitive.
Nov. 11: Ada Music Feast
Final Results
GC: Grove City “Touch of Class” (BV, BB)
1RU: Piqua “The Company” (BC)
2RU: Grove City “Class Act”
3RU: South Dearborn “Opening Knight”
4RU: Kenton “Top Twenty”
Well, well, well. In their first Music Feast since 2016, Grove City comes in and takes the win from Piqua, who went on to have a terrific season after winning at Ada last year. Touch of Class may very well find itself in the same position this year – with a couple consecutive years of non-pandemic show choir to build on, former Buckeye Valley and Whitehall-Yearling director Ann Johnson brought the group to new heights last year, placing on the podium everywhere they went and toppling some solid programs like Olentangy and Solon. Touch of Class also cleaned house at Capitol, and wins breed wins. An early matchup with Carroll, Plainfield and Noblesville awaits at Ball State on January 27. Piqua’s outlook on the season shouldn’t be much dimmer, even with the second-place finish. The entire creative team is back from the group that won three times last year, and early indications is that this show is going to be just as entertaining as 2023’s. South Dearborn took their second consecutive fourth place and the captions for Best Female Soloist and Best Show Design. Their early season will be tough as well, matching up with last year’s breakout small mixed group, Austin, on January 20 at Anderson. Unbeknownst to most, Ada dropped to five finalists this year, and there to take the final spot was Kenton. They unseated Strongsville and Teays Valley, finalists last year, for the spot. Prominent Rendition did lose longtime director Eric Farrell in advance of this season. Kenton has been a cool story to follow out of Ohio – a traditionally small and underdog program captured two overall wins in 2022 and followed it up with three finals appearances in 2023. 2024 looks to be more of the same.
Nov. 11: Stars Over Seneca
Overall Results
GC: Webb City “Singers” (BV)
1RU: Webb City “Bella Voce” (BC)
2RU: Nevada “Soundsational Singers”
This one went how most people expected it to – Webb City scored another 1-2 after pulling it off in 2022 as well. Singers was a solid finals-tier group in winter competitions last season, something they’ll look to build on for this year. In a relatively light field of high-division mixed choirs, a late drop from McDonald County eliminated most of the intrigue that would’ve come from a matchup with Nevada, something that will probably happen at a later point during this season. Seneca also only announced the top three placements this year after announcing six placements last year. In small mixed, Mt. Vernon took the division win over El Dorado Springs, and in single-gender, it was Webb City’s girls, Nevada’s girls and then Webb City’s boys. Nevada did take one triumph on the day – they beat both Webb City groups and El Dorado Springs in the middle school division.
For most choirs, now is the time to buckle down and get that show in shape before January arrives! Comps of the Week will return then, but keep checking HomeRoom Show Choir for more great show choir content in the leadup to the season!
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