Student Choir News


St Joachim School Choir Pushing Through Covid!


Where there's a will.... Our first live Student Choir performance was Christmas Eve, outdoors, using the usual singing area along with the upper deck of the school building to help spread choristers out. This only allowed us to safely distance 8 of our 25+ singers. Then we got the bright idea of using the multiple wireless lapel-mic system that we use each year for the school musical. This allowed us to mic up 11 more students, who simply sit with their families in the assembly and stand up to sing as each song comes up during the mass. Add to that the notion that we can have 2 sibling choir members on one mic and we're up to 22+ for each performance. We tried this out for the Catholic Schools Week mass and it went swimmingly! We'll do it again for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, 4th Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd) as well as 1st communion and graduation masses. 

Choir, Work on your National Anthem part!

Students, opportunities like this often come up in unexpected ways. The Ducks have chosen us twice in recent years to sing this arrangement on the ice at "Score Night", one of them with just 10 days notice! The trick to getting to be part of something like this is to be prepared if and when an opportunity like this presents itself. 


The Ducks have also had us sing two other times at the "Score" street hockey tournament outside the stadium. We hope to have more performance opportunities with the Ducks so choir members please use the links below to keep your part in shape. Also: It's a good idea to know at least 2 of the parts!


2015 Student Choir Called on once again to sing National Anthem at a Ducks Game! 


The school choir once again sang the Anthem at a Ducks game on Friday, March 20th! Our upper graders were unavailable this time around so we are relied on our younger talent to get it done. 'Great job all!

The '13-'14 school choir knocked it outa' the rink last year on March 2nd to a very enthusiastic crowd who is probably more accustomed to having soloists provide the honors.

See the 2014 live performance by clicking HERE (Link is having trouble; try again later as I address the problem!)

We hope to be called upon once again for future games!. Due to limited carpet space on the ice and a very tight time window for execution we are only allowed to include 8 singers. This was a real heartbreak for us as we've had the unenviable task of deciding who was in and which of our talented singers had to watch from the sidelines. Thankfully, people have handled the decisions well. Those who sang worked very hard to perfect my arrangement and those who were "on the bubble" were gracious, and ready to step in if needed. They were also very supportive for those who sang. 'Great "Sea-King" spirit!


"Shining Star" parts coming!


Yes, we will be working on my arrangement of "Shining Star" by Earth. Wind. and Fire! It's going to be awesome and we will use it either at an "Ice Cream Social" concert, or if we attend the annual diocesan choir festival, so please listen to the link below to become familiar with the song (Circa 1975). Sheet music and individual rehearsal tracks will appear here soon.

Work on your "Ave Verum Corpus Part

We still like having this song available to us at large masses so listen in on your part!

New CD Complete! (2014)


What a milestone for the school choir! Be sure to pick up your copy of the School Choir CD at either the school or parish office for just $10.00. The kids sang great and the production quality is second to none! We also hope to reinstate a few of these songs with the current choir so make certain you have a copy to practice with.

Listen to sound clips from the CD by clicking here.


The five songs on the CD are: Lean On Me (Withers), Give Jesus a Dwelling Place (Everson) Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart),  I'll Follow (Everson) and He Ain't Heavy (Scott).

Don't miss this!

I am keeping the rehearsal recordings for "Ave Verum Corpus" available below so that this can become a standard part of our repertoire at masses in the coming year. Please review your part regularly via the links below! ('And then sing along with your CD!) 

Sopranos! Click here for  Ave Verum Corpus Soprano
Altos! Click here for Ave Verum Corpus Alto 
Tenors! Click here for Ave Verum Corpus Tenor
All! Click here for Ave Verum Corpus lyrics


Other stuff:

Screen Door ( 2014 festival song) is still here for rehearsal in case we get back to it.

CLICK HERE  for the choir lyric page. Print yourself a copy and then use it while listening to your part via the links below.

Sopranos CLICK HERE for your rehearsal recording. (The "Ooohs" are you while the piano is the other parts.)

Altos CLICK HERE for your rehearsal recording. (The "Ooohs" are you while the piano is the other parts.)

Screamers CLICK HERE for your rehearsal recording. (The "Ooohs" are you while the piano is the other parts.)

Here is link to the studio recording "Screen Door On A Submarine" which I used as the basis for our School Choir arrangement. Once you know your part WELL Click HERE to get a better feel for the piece.

Here is another link of the "live" version of "Screen Door" done with cups, which I hope to approximate when we perform this piece. Those practicing the cup rhythm should work with this one regularly!!! Click HERE. Then, scroll forward to about the 4:00 mark.


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