GENTRY — Gentry High School performing choirs competed at their regional choral performance assessment on March 4 in Bentonville, scoring high enough to qualify to go on to the state choral performance assessment to be held in Conway on April 15 and 16.

The Women’s Ensemble choir is made up of 23 singers in grades nine through 12. The choir performed an a capella piece entitled “Rise Up in Festive Song” by Clereau and an accompanied piece called “Tres Canciones de los Elementos” (”Three Songs about the Elements”). The choir received superior and excellent ratings from the three judges and were recommended for the state choral performance assessment.

The Varsity Singer choir is a mixed choir of 34 male and female singers in grades nine through 12. The choir performed an a capella piece called “Canteremos” (“Sing!”) and an accompanied spiritual, “There’s Room for Many AMore!” The latter piece incorporates the songs: “This Train, Get On Board, Little Children”; “The Gospel Train”; and “New River Train.” The mixed choir also received superior and excellent ratings from the three judges and were recommended for the state choral performance assessment.

“It’s awesome!” said sophomore varsity choir member Lacey Stephens. “Such a great group of students get to go to state. Weall worked really hard,” she said.

“Our choir worked hard, and I knew we would make it to state if we put in the right amounts of determination and perseverance,” said senior varsity choir member Dylan Pollard.

The choirs are under the direction of Trella Yates, who has been the choral director at Gentry High school for six years. She taught choral music for a total of 24 years, teaching in Allen, Texas and Fayetteville, before coming to Gentry.

“I have really enjoyed watching our choir program grow and become successful,” Yates said. “The students have developed a strong sense of pride in their singing and confidence in setting goals and working to make them happen. Gentry is a wonderful place to be teaching music,” she added.

Martha Hawkins, the high school librarian, plays piano for the choirs and she accompanied them to Bentonville for the regional competition.

“Mrs. Hawkins is a great asset to the school and friend to the choirs,” Yates said. “ We appreciate her talents so much.”

Making it to state level is quite an accomplishment for the choirs - one which took much practice and hard work for the students. It gave choir members a sense of pride in their accomplishments.

“I was so excited that both high school choirs made state my senior year,” said Women’s Ensemble member Brittany der Kinderen.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 03/17/2010