Chorus Trip to New York Goes Smoothly

Story by Austin Kuttruff

The PHS chorus took their biannual trip, this year to New York City, New York, to participate in the 2007 Heritage Festivals Spring Program. Lead by director Michael Shultz, 97 PHS students left on Wednesday, April 18, for three full days in NYC.

The Heritage Festival took place at the Riverside Church, located in upper West Manhattan. Two choirs performed: the Woman’s Choir and the Concert Choir. The Concert Choir was a combination of both the Concert and Mixed choirs.

The choirs performed on Friday, April 20. The Concert Choir performed at ten in the morning, while the Women’s Choir performed at noon. The choirs were judged on a scale of one to 100. The Concert choir scored 89 ½ points receiving a silver award, missing a gold award by only half of a point. The Women’s Choir scored a total of 92 points and received a gold award.

While singing at the festival was an important part of the trip, and the reason for going, it was only one day of the three-day stay.

“Time Square and shopping were my favorite parts of the trip,” commented freshman Greg Poser, although junior Grant Hellestad didn’t enjoy the rappers on Time Square.

“You had to make sure they couldn’t stick a CD anywhere. I had to walk with my arms way out so they couldn’t stick a CD in my armpit,” said Hellestad.

The choirs also went to a Broadway musical entitled Curtains.Curtains, a murder mystery starring David Hide Pierce, more commonly known as Dr. Niles Crane on the TV sitcom Frasier, happened to be Schultz’s favorite part of the trip.

The ride home on Monday, April 23, was nice for some.

Junior Jake Schwab commented, “The city and streets were always busy no matter what time it was, and people weren’t friendly like they are in Wisconsin. It was nice to come home.”

Yet others were disappointed and wanted to stay longer. “The worst part of the trip was leaving,” said Poser.

Schultz was very proud and very happy in the way the students sang and presented themselves. “They were first class all the way,” concluded Shultz.