Despite the total number of competitions going down this weekend, the quality of the competitions is still top-notch! Five stood out across the country:
Brandon Show Choir Elite
The Lineup (all groups from Mississippi)
Large Mixed: Grenada “Visions”, Jackson Preparatory “Reveillon”, Madison Central “Reveille”
Middle Mixed: Northeast Jones “Gold Horizons”
Small Mixed: Laurel “Showstoppers”, Madison Central “Radiance”, Wayne County “Orange Sensations”
Womens: Madison Central “Renown”
Middle School: Grenada “Entertainers”, Jackson Preparatory “Fusion”
As one Southern show choir luminary said, “all Mississippi show choir roads lead to Brandon.” The main road that leads here is the road that both Madison Central and Grenada have traveled this season. Visions has swept Reveille twice this season, first at Jasper and then at West Jones. However, MC has been the second-place group both times. Jackson Prep hops in as well to make it a battle of the Revs. JP is coming off its best placement of the season at HOA Chicago, where they were first runner-up and took the choreography caption away from Millard West. In Bill Myers’ final competition with the group, Gold Horizons is the only choir in the middle mixed category. Small mixed promises to be super competitive as well. Radiance won the division at Jackson Academy, which was their only other appearance in 2023. Laurel has a division win and four second-place finishes so far this year, and Wayne County picked up an overall win at Purvis earlier this year. This is the 9th (ninth!!) competition for Orange Sensations in 2023.
Heart of America New York City
The Lineup
Mixed: Ankeny Centennial “Spectrum” (IA), Carroll “Minstrel Magic” (IN), Daniel Hand “VIBE” (CT), Los Alamitos “Sound FX” (CA), Manchester “Capital Swing” (VA), Marysville “Swingers Unlimited” (OH)
Womens: Carroll “Select Sound” (IN), Los Alamitos “Soundtrax” (CA), Manchester “Touch of Swing” (VA)
While Show Choir Nationals will get more attention than HOA NYC over the course of the weekend, this would be a headliner competition on most other weekends of the year (besides for perhaps HOA Nashville). A year after Los Al swept Ankeny Centennial at Nationals, they will hope to do it again in a different location. Daniel Hand comes into the competition undefeated and has not lost a vocals or choreography caption in 2023. Marysville hasn’t finished lower than second place all year in a tough Ohio scene and has four best choreography captions to boot. After a pair of thirds to begin the season, Carroll has now swept three smaller Indiana competitions and will look to see how that translates to a national stage. Manchester is the only group that comes in without a win and has the least impressive record on paper, having lost to two small mixed groups earlier this season. One mixed group will be left out of finals, as only five choirs will advance to the evening round.
Rouse Capital City Showcase
The Lineup (all choirs from Texas unless noted):
Mixed: Arlington “Choraliers”, Burleson “Breakaway”, Cedar Park “Timberwolf Show Choir”, Centennial “Shades of Blue”, Cristo Rey Fort Worth “Blazin’ Blue”, Ferris “Yellowjacket Singers”, Fort Worth Southwest “Sound Machine”, Fort Worth Southwest “Southwest Effect”, Glenn “Dynamicz”, Hebron “Harmony!”, Keller Central “Voltage”, Leander “Legacy”, Montgomery “Dynamix”, Texas City “Soundsations”, Timber Creek “Aerodynamix”, Westwood “Rebelaires” (IA)
Middle School: Kerr “Electric Blue”, Rosemont “Revolution”, STEAM “Soundwaves”, Timberview “Ovation”, Trinity Springs “Fusion”, Trinity Springs “Titanium”, Wedgwood “Voices of Wedgwood”, Wiley “Pop Group”
Welcome to Texas show choir, where the high schools are all in one 16-choir division, middle schools are named after vaporized water and you have no idea how this competition will shake out. Fort Worth Southwest is the only finalist from Keller Central entered here and is in the driver’s seat. Texas City is the reigning champion of this competition, but they enter with an entirely new leadership team. Arlington and Voltage are last year’s third- and fourth-place finishers, respectively, and should make strong bids to be in the evening six. Westwood is coming off a strong first runner-up showing at Hinton and is the lone outsider to this competition. Timber Creek hit the podium at Fort Worth Southwest to kick off the season but didn’t place at Legacy, leaving Aerodynamix a little bit of an unknown. Centennial rounded out the placings at Legacy for their first-ever placement and will also challenge for a low-end finals spot. A shoutout goes to Fort Worth Southwest’s prep group, Sound Machine, for making its competition debut, as well as to Cedar Park and Glenn for also making their competition debuts!
Show Choir Nationals
The Lineup
Mixed: El Paso-Gridley “Modulations” (IL), Enterprise “Encores” (AL), Findlay “First Edition” (OH), Hastings “Riverside Company” (MN), Homewood “The Network” (AL), Linn-Mar “10th Street Edition” (IA), Mt. Zion “Swingsations” (IL), North Central “Counterpoints” (IN), Oak Mountain “Singers” (AL), Olentangy “Keynotes” (OH), Peoria “Soundwave” (IL)
Womens: El Paso-Gridley “Hi Fidelity” (IL), Enterprise “Esprit” (AL), Homewood “Nexus” (AL), Mt. Zion “Les Femmes” (IL), North Central “Descants” (IN), Oak Mountain “The Muses” (AL), Olentangy “She-Notes” (OH)
Mens: Mt. Zion “You’ve Got Male” (IL)
Out of the 11-choir mixed field, Olentangy and Enterprise are the only two that haven’t won at least won competition this year. The crazy part is that this is how deep SCN is year in and year out. There’s a reason it’s called Nationals. Linn-Mar is undefeated so far this year and hasn’t dropped a major caption since January. Homewood is also four-for-four and hasn’t dropped a main caption since January either. Findlay is a third undefeated group entered and has withstood the test of a very deep Ohio circuit. The only blemish on Hastings’ record is a split-caption decision in its first competition of the season. While nobody is a lock for finals, those four is about as close as it will get. Behind them, Mt. Zion is coming off a split-caption runner-up finish to Wheaton North at the Choral Classic. Oak Mountain is coming off a commanding sweep at Tift County. EPG is coming off a sweep at Watseka. While not as dangerous as in past years, North Central is the most recent SCN winner of any choir entered (2018). Peoria, Olentangy and Enterprise are long shots for finals, but nothing can be totally counted out when it comes to Nationals. In the womens division, three of Alabama’s best groups (Esprit, Nexus and Muses) look to take charge of the division, but they will have to deal with Les Femmes and Descants to make it happen.
West Virginia State Show Choir Festival
The Lineup (all choirs from West Virginia)
Large Mixed: Huntington “Illusions”, Hurricane “Red Hot”
Middle Mixed: Herbert Hoover “High Impact”, Musselman “Kaleidoscope”, Nitro “Showcats”, Robert C. Byrd “Vocal Intensity”, Winfield “General Admission”
Festival Mixed: Capital “Voices in Perfection”, Jefferson “Pop Singers”, Notre Dame “The Shamrocks”, Poca “Visual Volume”
Womens: Hurricane “Heat Wave”, Spring Mills “Ethereal”, Winfield “Emerald Elegance”
Putting aside all the drama about the WVMEA, the real issue with West Virginia states is that there’s no finals (for legal reasons, that’s a joke). The Mountaineer State is experiencing a dearth of large choirs this year, with only rookie challenger Huntington fielding a group large enough to be in the highest category alongside Hurricane. On the flip side of the coin, middle mixed is thriving. Winfield and Nitro have gone back and forth the past two years, and Musselman claimed an overall win at Alliance last month. Robert C. Byrd cannot be left out of the conversation as well after they won 10 caption awards (you read that right) at South Harrison earlier this year. Whoever wins the middle mixed division will not have done it by accident. In festival mixed, Poca and Capital will look to fight it out for the title. Of note, Spring Mills rejoins the show choir scene for the first time since 2017 with its entry here.
Make sure to check back at the end of the weekend for a recap of how things all went down over the weekend!
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