After the Easter break, a pair of marquee contests headline the show choir world for the week!
Show Choir Canada Championships
The Lineup (groups from Ontario unless noted)
Open Division: All Saints “Flash”, Beaconsfield “Crescendo” (QC), FAME SOPA “Fame”, Music Academy of Western New York “ROAR” (NY), Music Academy of Western New York “SHOUT” (NY), Pickering “Euphonix”, St. George’s “G Major” (QC), Strike It Up Artistic Center “Vocal Motion” (NY), Unionville “Synergy”
America’s top hat returns for its second live competition following the pandemic. The several-time defending winner, Etobicoke Splash, will not be competing this year and has moved into a hosting role. That breaks the field entirely wide open for anybody to take. Unionville was the only other group in the large mixed division last year, putting them in a good position to take home the overall win. St. George’s won this event in 2015 and 2016. It’s been a long time since then, but could they return to past form? The American invasion is alive and well, as three of the nine total groups are from New York. Shout won the small mixed division at Bishop Hendricken two weekends ago and cannot be ruled out for the win if the are in the large division. Strike It Up is making its debut on the competitive stage from the Rochester area and is a wildcard as well. As there are no other competitions in Canada throughout the course of the year, the winner of this competition will have true national bragging rights for another twelve months.
Waltham Eastern Show Choir Festival
The Lineup (groups from Massachusetts unless noted)
Large Mixed: Lowell “Sound Impressions”, Mt. Zion “Swingsations” (IL), Shepherd Hill “Fantasy”, Somerset Berkley “Electrify”, Tantasqua “ENCORE!”
Small Mixed: Boston Latin “Pizazz”, Dartmouth “Dynamix”, Leominster “Ignition”, Natick “West Street Singers”, Oliver Ames “Panache”
Single-Gender: Lowell “Soundsations”, Mt. Zion “Les Femmes” (IL), Mt. Zion “You’ve Got Male” (IL), Shepherd Hill “Illusion”, Somerset Berkley “Amplified”, Tantasqua “Applause”
Waltham continues its status as an institution at the end of the Eastern season. This year, however, it is specifically serving as the season-ender for Massachusetts choirs. All of the Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire groups have already called it good for the year. Four large Massachusetts groups are entered, but none of them have won so far this season. Shepherd Hill is farthest up the food chain of those groups this season. Lowell, Somerset Berkley and Tantasqua have all shown flashes, but Fantasy seems to be peaking at the right time. However, the choir to take down will be Mt. Zion. The group got off to a late start by Midwest standards but had quite the month of March. They roll into Waltham as two-time winners on the season. In small mixed, Natick is the only group that has notched a division win so far this season. They will look to repeat that accomplishment here. In single-gender, the two Mt. Zion outfits will look to throw their weight around at the top. Les Femmes has an extravagant Barbie production, and YGM has a hilarious Bachelorette-themed show. Again, Shepherd Hill will likely be the choir hottest on their heels.
While there are only two large competitions this weekend, they are well worth the headlines! Return to homeroomshowchoir.com early next week to get all the analysis on what happened.
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