Marion Community Schools to participate in annual choir festival

Children from Marion Community Schools and surrounding counties will participate in the Circle the State with Song festival on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Marion High School’s auditorium.  

Christina Huff, the area coordinator for middle school students, said children attending this event will sing musical selections together and learn about different school districts, teachers and musical approaches in a non-competitive environment.  

“Circle the State is more of a festival situation, so it’s not competition,” Huff said. “It’s nothing that they need to be stressed about. It’s very much a collaborative day, a collaborative effort.” 

Debbie Myers, the accompanist for the festival’s junior high students, said the students have three or four hours total to rehearse their selections before the concert.   

“They have to learn a lot of music in a short amount of time, which is hard, but they do it really well,” Myers said. 

Grace Sommerfeld, co-coordinator for the elementary division, said the program consists of separate elementary and middle school performances. At the end of the program, both choirs will combine to sing one song together.  

In addition to her experience as co-coordinator for the elementary division, Sommerfeld experienced this festival as a participant in 2006. She said she appreciated that the performance helped her meet children from schools she hadn’t known existed. 

“Having this common connection that we all love to sing and that we all knew this music and then creating a concert by that evening for our family to come and see, was really cool,” Sommerfeld said.   

Huff said people should attend the concert because of its positive nature. 

“There’s a lot of things that people will say are not going well in the world right now and this is something that’s positive,” Huff said. “There is absolutely nothing negative about this event. It’s something that you can go to and just enjoy, and anybody is welcome to go to the concert. You can’t get much better than watching a group of kids sing positive music.” 

Huff said tickets for the concert are $5 and attendees can buy them at the door. Children ages five and under receive free tickets.