The week of Apr. 25 to Apr. 28, Newport High School’s Innovation took a trip to Boston, Massachusetts for their annual performance trip. After many rehearsals, the Newport Innovation Choir announces they won second-place gold in Boston this year.
On this trip, the students sang at their adjudication, went to the Boston Symphony Orchestra performance, took tours all around Boston, and went to the JFK Presidential Library.
The first activity the group partook in was going to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to get mentored in their singing. They participated in this event last year in Washington D.C. This AIM experience allows the students to work with a professional on the competition pieces they will be performing with at the adjudication. In this AIM experience, Dr. William Cutter listened as they sang for him in the masterclass.
Sophomore soprano Sophia Griffin states, “My favorite part of the innovation trip was the first tour. The first tour {we did} was said to be a ghost tour.” She continues, “…it was a very good and informative experience with a very sweet, funny, and highly intelligent guide. His tour was a fun-filled walking tour in which I would say all of innovation learned a new fact or two about the history of Boston.”
The students have practiced various songs including Shut De Do arranged by Greg Gilpin, Exsultate, Jubilate by Brian Lewis, and How Can I Keep from Singing? arranged by Mark Patterson which they performed at their adjudication.
Senior and soprano, Lillee Shull says, “My favorite song is Shut De Do because it is very upbeat, and I like the message behind the song.”
After the adjudication, the group went to a banquet with everyone participating in the competition. This not only includes the choir singers, but people in jazz bands as well. There were 900 students at the banquet. This banquet also included an award ceremony. The awards included gold, silver, and bronze. Newport gladly went home with 2nd place in their category and gold in their singing.
