All the students involved in the St. Mary's choir will attend the show, while the Grade 9 students will perform on stage with Foreigner.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
Grade 9 students in the Fine Arts Academy at St. Mary’s School will take the stage at Co-op Place alongside legendary rock and roll band Foreigner on Wednesday night.
Twenty-five students taking part in the St. Mary’s choir will perform the hit song “I Want To Know What Love Is” with the band.
“They’re such a great group, and they work really hard. They really understand the performance aspect of this. They work hard, and they are really excited for the opportunity,” said choir director Shayna Peters.
Peters said Foreigner has done this kind of outreach before. When she heard they were inviting auditions for their Medicine Hat performance, she thought it would be a great opportunity for her students to see a big stage.
“We kind of read through the advertisement and thought, ‘I think we can totally do this,’ and went for it. We just jumped in, and everything else took a back burner.”
Peters says the choir submitted an audition in September, and halfway through last month’s teacher strike she received notice from the band’s management that the group had been chosen for the performance.
Over the past week, students have been hard at work practising for the show.
“We sang every day last week when we were in school,” said Ayla Tatro, one of the student performers. “We had a period every day where we just sang the song.”
The kids say they might not have known Foreigner by name, but they quickly learned that they recognized their music.
“I didn’t know who they were, but I knew some of their songs. My mom played some for me and I was like ‘Oh! That’s who they are.'” said Macy Duce, another student performer.
Peters says parents have been excited, and a little jealous.
Student Maddison Ward says they’ve had other major performance opportunities before, including the opportunity to collaborate with a Calgary film crew to shoot a CFL-themed music video last year. But this will be their biggest stage yet, and the students are embracing the challenge.
“I’m most excited about being on stage, getting in front of such a big crowd,” said Duce.
“I’m looking forward to facing the fear of a big crowd,” said Ward. “We’ve also got a musical coming up. People have solo performances, so this will help with that.”
The choir is made up of around 90 students across all three middle-school grades. While only the Grade 9 students will take the stage, the entire class has been given tickets to the show to watch their classmates’ performance.
Most of the students performing have been part of the fine arts program for the past three years. This is an exciting way to wrap up their final year at St. Mary’s before they move on to high school next year.
Peters is a former student at St. Mary’s herself. As a first-year teacher, she is thrilled to take part in such a unique opportunity. She says it’ll be a tough one to match, but she’ll be on the hunt for new ways to keep kids excited about the performing arts.
“I really want the kids to just love the arts like I did. So I’ll do research, see what’s out there. Every year is going to be different, every opportunity is going to give the students different things to learn,” she said.
“We’ll see what is brought to Medicine Hat. We live in such an amazing musical, artsy hub here in Medicine Hat. So there’s always great opportunities for these kids.”
