Friday, April 22, students from the Pulaski County Middle School Band and Choral Departments traveled to Carowinds Amusement and Theme Park to participate in the Carowinds Festival of Music program. This program brings groups together to allow them a chance to perform and receive an evaluation from trained and experienced judges.
For the choir students from PCMS, the day involved 88 students and 14 parents and staff members who served as chaperones. The students performed two selections. The first was Whisper by Greg Gilpin. The second was Al Shlosha D’Varim by Allan Naplan. After the completion of their performance, the adjudicators rewarded the students with the highest possible rating of Superior.
“The PCMS choir has nearly doubled in size since the opening of the school, which was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Meredith Airaghi, PCMS Choir Director said. “This was our first evaluation in many years. We opted out of a district assessment this year, but will attend the district assessment next year. Our students have worked very hard for this accomplishment and we are very proud of them.”
For the PCMS Band students, there were 92 members in attendance. This band is starting new after the pandemic, which is no small task. With that in mind, PCMS Band Director Eric Young decided to have his students perform for comments and suggestions instead of for a rating.
“The judges told us that our group had a really nice sense of rhythm and they could tell that we were really enjoying ourselves,” Young said. “With most of our students just starting off in band, we wanted to give them an experience to start with, but without the pressure of a formal evaluation. We’re excited about the future of our program and our students did a wonderful job.”
The band students performed in two groups. The first group was Beginning Band, which performed Trains by Tim Kanslar and Hot Cougar Band, by Young himself. The seventh and eighth grade band performed Dragon Slayer by Rob Grice, followed by Shadow Fire and Mechanical Monster by Randall Standridge.
The trip took one day, with students leaving from the school early and returning later that evening.
The PCMS Choir will be holding their Spring Concert Thursday, May 5, at the PCMS Auditorium beginning at 6 p.m. The PCMS Band will hold their Spring Concert Wednesday, May 11, at the same location at 5 p.m.