CRESTVIEW — As the Crestview High School chorus wrapped up its 70th anniversary season with a lively spring concert, choral music Director Kevin Lusk, who’s concluding his 20th year in the position, turns his attention to an ambitious 2016-17 school year.
With six of the Men’s Choir’s 15 members graduating, Lusk is hoping to beef up the remaining ranks with at least 10, and preferably more, boys feeding into the program from the Davidson and Shoal River Middle School choruses.
Toward that goal, he and his Davidson and Shoal River counterparts, Keitha Bledsoe and Steve Box, began an annual fall Men’s Day, in which boys from the middle school choruses spend the day with Crestview High, college and community chorus men. Nearly 50 students attended the November 2015 camp.
Performances and choral music competitions are also on the agenda for the new school year. These events prepare students for college performing arts programs, Lusk said, as well as eventual careers.
2016-17 PLANS
“Next year will be our Disney year,” Lusk said. “We will once again audition for a space in the Disney Candlelight Procession in December. We have been participating in this event every other year since 1995. We will probably sing again at Universal Studios.”
Lusk also anticipates taking the 95-voice chorus’s sub-choirs to competition in Mississippi, Alabama, “and possibly add a third competition in Georgia,” he said. “And this WILL be the year I have an Alumni Choir Concert the weekend of Memorial Day.”
Looking even further ahead, Lusk, who begins his 21st year as choral music director, is considering taking the singers to a choral music festival in Texas in 2018.
“But I still have a dream of performing at the Sydney Opera House with a CHS Choir,” he said. “However we always make our plans in sand so that we can shift if our dreams change.”
CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights from the May 10 spring concert included Lusk’s surprise solo during the Men’s Choir’s performance of “Runaround Sue,” and Chorale’s lovely “You Raise Me Up,” which was performed in the round with the choir surrounding the packed Pearl Tyner Auditorium.
Lusk led the five choirs and new men’s quartet through pieces “from 400 or 500 years ago right up to music you heard in your car on the way over,” Lusk told his audience.
From the Woman’s Choir’s Latin opener, “Cantate Domino” to the Chanticleer show choir’s closer, “Party Rock Anthem,” the Crestview High School chorus delivered that promise.
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2016-17 CHORUS HIGHLIGHTS
District competition: Women’s Choir, straight Excellents; Chorale, straight Superiors. Destiny and Chanticleer show choirs, three ensembles, four soloists, barbershop quartet and student conductor (the only one in the district) earned Superiors
State competition: Chorale, straight Excellents
“We have had between one and four large choirs qualify for State every year since 1996, and only failed to attend in 2012 when we had a conflict with our Toronto tour,” choral music Director Kevin Lusk said.
Mississippi Show Choir Competition: Chanticleer placed 2nd in their division
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview chorus plans include forming Alumni Choir, augmenting Men's Choir