Richmond vocal ensemble takes home high marks at choral event

Everyone knows the Richmond Senior High School Vocal Ensemble can sing, but recently they received high accolades at a regional event which validated the group’s high level of dedication and passion.

The Raider students recently participated in Music Performance Adjudication at Wingate University, which took place over multiple locations and days during the month of March, which is Music in our Schools Month.

Lauren Lutz, the Richmond Senior choral music educator, said the event was not really a competition, as there are no rankings; best described as an adjudicated choral festival. After the judging was completed, she stepped onto the bus with a straight face to inform the students that they had fallen short of their goals.

Richmond Senior High School Vocal Ensemble members Kira Kiskis, Evie Howell, and Gabby Lutz sing the National Anthem during Arts Alive 2023 at the Cole Auditorium on March 16, 2023, as part of a three-day event celebrating arts in Richmond County Schools. (Photo by Mark Bell)

That deceptiveness didn’t last too long, as she told students they did, in fact, receive a superior rating in both performance and sight-reading. The bus erupted in cheers as the top mark was evidence of consistency in technique and artistry.

“I felt surprised because she really had us all convinced, but otherwise, I felt so proud of the whole group because we work so well together, and this is only the beginning,” said 17-year-old junior Caroline Hunsucker.

Lutz said the ensemble of 25 students is the most advanced choral group at Richmond Senior, made up of all three grades, with 11 of the 25 being seniors, and most are involved in more than one extra-curricular club or team and quite a few work jobs after school.

Students performed two pieces for judges and received a rating and comments; then, they went into another room to sight-sing music for someone new.

Lutz said events like those at Wingate are important because they give students a chance to hear and see peers who are doing the same thing they are and validate their performances.

“Hearing choirs that are a little further down the road than us gives us a vision for what’s next, too,” she said. “When you rehearse for an hour and a half a day, you need mile markers along the way between day one and day ninety.”

She said festivals are a great way to gauge their performance from someone looking from the outside the county.

“The feedback that we get from the judges becomes a touchstone that we refer to for improvement,” she said. “I love it when the judges reiterate points that I’ve been trying to get across.”

When asked about the importance of choir, Lutz said that the answer isn’t as easy as it may seem but pointed back to senior Karen Tilley, who wrote a song introduction for “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder, which she performed at the Richmond County Schools’ Arts Alive at the Cole Auditorium on March 16, 2023.

Richmond Senior High School senior Fanny Radermecker, center, sings the National Anthem with the Vocal Ensemble during Arts Alive 2023 at the Cole Auditorium on March 16, 2023, as part of a three-day event celebrating arts in Richmond County Schools. Radermecker is a foreign student from Belgium. (Photo by Mark Bell)

Three years ago, Tilley was scared of coming to Richmond Senior and not being able to find a community or place where she would be accepted for who she was and what she enjoyed most.

“Over the past four years, that place has become the choir room,” Tilley said. “Without fail, every time I’ve entered that room, the people in there have made me feel safe and, most importantly, more than anything, loved.”

She said the high school choir experience made it one of the best experiences.

“They are some of the biggest rays of sunshine of my life, and I’d like to thank them for making my life so much brighter,” Tilley said.

Those multiple reasons for joining the vocal ensemble make it a better place to grow as a vocalist and a person behind the closed doors of the choir room.

“It’s an intensely personal activity,” Lutz said. “Choir is an incredible place to experience the balance of the importance of the individual with the call to sacrifice self for the good of others.”

Lutz said students must learn the confidence to share their own voice, but they must also develop the skills to manipulate it in response to others so that the entire ensemble improves.

“Imagine what those skills look like when you apply them outside the chorus room,” she said. “Everyone has to pull their weight while simultaneously observing what’s needed and reacting to that.  I think the attention to detail that we attempt also helps kids develop stronger reasoning skills, which is critical in today’s ‘headlines only’ environment.”

Bringing different personalities and backgrounds into one room can be challenging and rewarding.

“There are times when we have to draw lines in the sand, but there are many more times when we can accept things and people as they are without evaluation,” she said. “Lately, I find myself saying to my students, ‘Part of maturity is learning how to have an opinion without needing to instantly express it.’”

That helps the choir room maintain an environment where everyone feels welcome, she said.

“It’s incredibly fun to watch wildly different kids develop a shared joy,” Lutz said. “It’s my job to teach kids how to offer and accept constructive criticism, and I think we have a great space for that currently, thanks to a fantastic set of students.”

Long after students walk across the graduation stage and begin their new journey, Lutz said she wants Richmond chorus alumni to see themselves as lifelong musicians with the confidence and ability to make a positive impact on their corner of the world.

“I want them to go forward with a solid network to call upon,” she said.

Lutz said that throughout history, music has been a part of humanity, and having it in schools just makes sense.

“So, it would be really odd to exclude something from formal education that’s just part of being human,” she said. “It’s also a natural context for many of the isolated disciplines that we teach in schools – math, literature, history, social sciences, and biology. They all come together here.”

Coming home
Lutz may be new to the position as a Richmond Senior music educator, but she’s a homegrown Richmond County Schools graduate and one of “Debbie’s Kids,” for those who were students of Debbie Price. Price was the choral director at the high school from 1997 to 2014.

After graduating from Richmond Senior in 1999, Lutz went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed both a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Arts in Teaching degree.

She began teaching for Richmond County Schools in 2004 and taught music at Ellerbe Junior, Mineral Springs Elementary, Leak Street High, Cordova School, East Rockingham Elementary, and Rockingham Middle schools.

“I loved what teachers were doing there so much that I wanted to join them,” she said. “I taught third-grade math and science for a semester before taking the job here at Richmond Senior.”

After teaching, she entered the Principal Development Program and completed a Master of School Administration at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and became an academic coach at L.J. Bell.

From teaching to school leadership, back to being a teacher was a simple reason for Lutz.

“I love learning, and I get to learn and watch others learn and grow,” she said. “It’s always my hope that I can pass on my enthusiasm for that.  I also see the work that happens in classrooms as critical to a functional democracy, so I’m passionate about offering quality public education.”

Richmond Senior High School junior Abbie Player, center, sings the National Anthem with the Vocal Ensemble during Arts Alive 2023 at the Cole Auditorium on March 16, 2023, as part of a three-day event celebrating arts in Richmond County Schools. (Photo by Mark Bell)

From being a music kid herself, Lutz has come full circle, helping the new generation find their voices and confidence to continue their education. Just maybe, one of the students she teaches today will reflect back and be one of “Lauren’s Kids.”

That Raider Magic just might be what fuels amazing stories, good memories, and repeating that journey that brings students back to Richmond County to give back to a community that gave them so much more than an education.