Buffalo High School’s concert choir received an honor to perform at MMEA in Minneapolis February 17th at the Convention Center.
The bus ride to the Convention Center was quiet. No singing on the way there, talking, but not loud, basically, your typical inside voice.
“Mr Walsh didn’t want us to ruin our voices,” said Junior Ellen Stetter. “He came on the bus and even told us ‘No singing, save your voices,’ and many people listened to that. We wanted to blow him away and I think we did.”
Concert Choir arrived at the convention Center around 2P.M. Right when they got there, it was “get in your robes”, “get in line”, and” let’s go rehearse.” Words from Walsh.
It was a messy rehearsal, according to Junior Rachel Robinson.
“I think we were all nervous to be there and perform,” said Robinson. “I felt like we were just goofing off at first, but then we started taking it seriously and it turned out to be a great concert.”
Before Concert Choir’s performance, the auditorium was close to empty with only about 10 people sitting in the audience.
“I was a little worried,” said Stetter. “I knew we had a fan bus arriving, along with Mr. Mischke and Baumann, but it was almost time to perform and almost no one was there. It made me a little bit sad.”
About 10 minutes before the performance, a swarm of close to 90 people came into the auditorium, filling it up pretty fast.
“After I saw how many people were actually there, I was a little bit nervous,” said Junior Cyrina Fehn. “I knew we would do a good job, I just had no idea that many people would show up, but it was a pretty big deal.”
During their performance, they sang 5 songs, 3 of them acapella, meaning without an accompaniment, and the other 2 with accompaniment and background music of drums and flute.
After Concert Choir’s 30 minute performance, the Concert Band played their time of about 30 minutes as well.
Band did 3 songs, one ended up being a 13 minute song.
At the end of the performance, band and choir performed a piece together. The band accompanied it while the choir sang it.
Walsh and Rabehl both received certificates for being there and putting on an excellent performance.
“I had the honor to see the Buffalo High School choir and and yesterday,” said Retired Choir Director Mister Nelson. “They did a fine performance and I was happy to be there, considering I was there with them for a few days while Mr. Walsh was away.”
Walsh and Rabehl took their students to the spaghetti factory after their performance at MMEA.
“It was delicious,” said Fehn. “I am so glad we did a good job and it was an excellent opportunity, I had a lot of fun.”
“I feel like we were well prepared,” said Walsh. “I feel like I had the students where I wanted them and it’s just about where they wanted to be too. I was just as excited as they were.”
By Heather Gerhardson
