Teen Singers and School Choir

The end of the school year brings lots of activities and concerts.  Alex has been involved in a group called "Teen Singers" that is sponsored by Austin Peay State University in Clarksville since January.  It is a group of very talented teenage singers.  Alex was introduced to it through two friends(Nick and Jeremy) at church who sing (top middle).  I think it has been an awesome opportunity for him.  The choir is very good, and not often do middle schoolers get a chance to perform with such a talented group.  In addition, Alex has been taking some voice lessons which have really helped him improve.  He is getting very good at singing tenor, I think.  Below are some pictures I took at their end of year concert a couple of weeks ago.  Alex is on the bottom row second from the left in the striped tie.

In contrast, we went to Alex's school choir concert last week.  I like the way they do electives in middle school here because they get to try everything and they rotate every 9 weeks.  However, I think it is counter-productive for choir.  I was in choir in middle school, and even many of the people who selected it as an elective weren't there to sing.  They just wanted an easy A.  I think with being assigned to choir, it makes it even more so because the kids didn't even choose to sing.  Alex says most of the class periods are spent disciplining.  And if you think about it, trying to get a bunch of moody 8th graders to sing could just be miserable.  Poor Teacher!  I have a hard enough time getting ONE teenager to cooperate. :)  Alex kept telling us it was horrible.  The 7th graders went first, and after listening to the 7th graders, the 8th graders sounded pretty good.  However, in contrast with the teen singers, the 8th grade choir was pretty sad.  I could hear Alex though, and he sounded good.  Below are some pictures I took of the school choir.  Alex is second row from the bottom just left of the middle.