Homewood High School’s show choir, recognized for its elite performances and overflowing trophy case, will add three acapella groups to its program. These groups will make their grand debut at the show choir fall show on Nov. 7, promising to add to the harmonies that fill HHS’s halls.
Currently, the show choir at Homewood features three groups, Continuum, Nexus and The Network. The Network in particular has become incredibly successful, coming up with three first-place trophies last year in competitions across the South and one in Ohio.
Co-director Cody Mcdonald, previously at the middle school, was brought up to the high school last year following the retirement of the main director at the time, Scott Thorne. Since Mosquera’s advancement to main director of choirs, he has implemented a few innovations, including featuring the choral department in the winter showcase with the band, and lately, the creation of these new acapella groups.
Mosquera said they’re going to create three acapella groups; all boys, all girls and a mixed group, each group representing one of the school’s colors: red, white and blue.
“We’re trying to provide an opportunity for kids whose focus is singing,” Mosquera said. “Like, you come to show choir and you’re automatically going to start singing and dancing, right? But there’s some kids that their gift is to sing and they really want to be challenged in some vocal aspect.”
One such junior, Graham Steele, is excited about the idea of joining an acapella group.
“I have wanted an opportunity to do more singing for a while,” Steele said. “I love it, and I’ve seen a lot of these groups grow recently and this is going to provide a really interesting opportunity for me and a lot of other people to have some fun with it.”
Sophomore Molly Pepper believes the new groups are a great idea and a perfect opportunity for many students.
“It gives people that can’t dance, or don’t want to dance a way to sing if they want to sing or be musical without having to join any large commitment,” Pepper said.
“The Network” dance captain and senior Grady Mclain said, “I think that it would be a fun idea, especially during the holidays, when it’s a lot of caroling, and I feel like it will make the shows run smoother like fall show and spring show… because there won’t be a break in between groups… and it will roll smoothly through the music, rather than having a little pause and then a solo and just random performances.”
This year, only show choir students can audition, but Mosquera hopes later down the line to make it schoolwide. Auditions will be held in the first few days of October.
