Do you guys know much about Choir at WKHS? No? Well, let me fill you in.
Here at WKHS, there are four different choirs: Concert Choir, Tremble Ensemble, Symphonic Choir and Kilbourne Singers. All these choirs are led by Director Holly Lewis. Lewis has been working here for 8 years. She’s also been singing since she was in second grade in the Columbus Children’s Choir.
“I like being able to work with different levels, like different levels of music, and I like being able to see students grow as a person, a singer, and a musician from their freshman year all the way to their senior year,” Holly Lewis stated.
The difference between the four different choirs is that Treble Ensemble and Concert Choir are for beginner level high school singers. Treble Ensemble is for soprano and altos and Concert Choir is for tenor, baritone or base. Symphonic choir the middle level/intermediate level which is also for soprano and alto. Lastly, Kilbourne Singers is the top choir, mostly made up of juniors and seniors. It is for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. To participate in Kilbourne Singers, you do have to try out.
In addition to Ms. Lewis, Tyler Domer is the pianist for all of the WKHS choirs and has been working here for 9 years. While at Kilbourne, he only plays for the choir, but outside of WKHS he has played piano for Westerville South and in the past for Olentangy High Schools. He was also included in being an assistant director for competition show choirs at Olentangy for 7-8 years.
Domer only attends WKHS on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, when the choir gets their music and has already started singing it, Domer most likely hasn’t even seen the notes yet.
On the days that he does come, he begins to play the piano effortlessly. This is an incredible feat as he currently is playing for four different choirs and each choir has at least three of their own songs. Now, how in the world does he do that? Domer insists it is not as difficult as one would assume.
” It’s not that bad… the technique you learn in taking piano , for the most part means you don’t get super tired out by playing,” Tyler Domer stated.
The WKHS choirs don’t just do concerts. They do OMEA district contest, caroling, trips every other school year and the Kilbourne Singers do a lot more.
OMEA district contest is when different school districts like Olentangy, Westerville, Worthington and other schools all meet in one place and sing in front of judges. At OMEA, there are two different areas they get judged in. One is their sight reading which is when they sing do, re, me , fa, so, la, ti, do, which is also known as solfege and then they get judged on their singing. The songs they sing are the songs that they also sing at our concerts here at Kilbourne. So, they have to sing two to three songs at school then in front of judges.
They also do caroling which is during which is right after Home For The Holidays which is one of their biggest concerts of the year. They go out caroling to different neighborhoods to raise money for big events, like their trip to Chicago next month.
“Singing with other people, like all those voices becoming one, every time I think about how all of our voices are singing at the same time, I’m just like how does that even work. To be in tune and on the same page, is not very often in your day you’re ever going to be on the same page with that many people,” stated Felicity Hess, a sophomore at WKHS.
We wish all the WKHS choirs good luck in their upcoming events.
