Junior Margaret Bird is returning SWACDA, the Southwestern Region: American Choir Director Association, for her second time at and heading off to Little Rock, Arkansas.
After an intense audition process, this is her third time going, and despite being a veteran, Margaret found new and interesting things to take away.
“This is actually my third time going and it was probably the most different from the other two times. The past two years I was in the SSAA choir and this year was the mixed choir, so it was a very different sound. It’s really awesome to have the basses to provide that foundation. It was also different because I didn’t have anyone from Littleton to travel with. I did end up finding a bunch of CO kids to hang out with, but it’s been nice in years past to explore the city with my Littleton people. I also had a new director this year. He was amazing,”
“Of course I learned a lot about singing technique, but I think what stuck with me the most was something our director said. He reminded us that creating music and loving music is often more about the process than the performance and that to love music we have to love the process,”
Not only was it educational, but it was an opportunity to meet students from other States with the same passion for choir and the arts.
“The students are only from the southwest region (Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado), so most of my conversations ended up being about how much more interesting the Colorado weather is. What was most interesting for me was comparing accents. When singing, annunciation and pronunciation are very important, so the differences in accents made one song really hard to pronounce for the girl next to me but easy for me with the Colorado accent.”
After ending her mini-vacation to Little Rock, Margaret Bird learned a lot and is more prepared and excited for choir than ever.
