The rivalry is typical between the county’s three traditional high schools, but a group of students from each school worked together for a common goal and walked away from the experience $5,000 richer.
The newly formed Edgecombe County Gospel Choir, consisting of members from Tarboro High, North Edgecombe High and SouthWest Edgecombe High schools, competed in the Pathmark Choir Competition in New York City on Saturday and earned first place, winning $5,000.
The group of 29 was up against large church choirs, colleges and universities, but they proved their talent was no match for the other competitors. North Carolina A&T; University won second place and Rutgers University won third place.
“The fact that my high school kids triumphed over the college kids says a lot,” said Choir Conductor Kristian Herring, and Phillip Middle music teacher.
“Coming from Edgecombe County, being from North Carolina, people don’t always expect that we’re going to bring what we bring,” said Choir Co-adviser Jessica Jones, THS teacher.
The choir didn’t have very long to pull together their performance. The Edgecombe County Gospel Choir formed late last year after Herring got requests from each high school to direct their choir after school, so he combined all the interested students together.
They entered the competition in January, leaving only a few weeks to bond and get in sync with one another personally and vocally.
“When you think about all these high schools who are rivals, they are very competitive so they were very stand offish at first,” Herring said.
“Not until right before the competition did they really start to gel.”
Herring, Jones and Tony Suggs, co-adviser, made the group do trust exercises to help them get pass the fact they’re from different schools.
“He (Suggs) made us have a bonding session,” said Brandon Hilliard, first year choir member and freshman at NEHS.
“We learned to work together as a team and any conflicts we had, we learned to work through our issues,” said Elizabeth Smith, first year choir member and junior at SWE.
Getting a late start with practicing wasn’t something that Herring was concerned about.
“He (Herring) said it doesn’t matter that you started late because I know that you can sing and you’re going to win,” Hilliard said.
The choir began practicing every Tuesday and Thursday and as the date of the competition got closer, they began practicing daily.
“The more they practiced, the more time they spent together, the more apparent it became that they were going to win,” Suggs said.
When their name was announced as first place winners, Hilliard said they ran to the front of the stage and was full with emotions, crying and laughing.
This wasn’t the first time that some of the students got the chance to experience a win at the competition. The Tarboro High School Gospel Choir won third place in 2005 and won first place in 2007, a year that some of the students remember.
Ironically, THS senior Shontia Pettway said that this year’s performance worked out better than in 2007.
“This year we were more prepared than what we were in 2007,” Pettaway said.
“It was exciting because it was my senior year and I can say I actually did something my senior year.”
On top of the group perfecting their songs and getting familiar with one another, they had to raise money to make it to competition. The cost was $150 per person which included the hotel stay and the bus ride.
The choir had plate sales, accepted donations, sold doughnuts, t-shirts and sold monogrammed bags with choir’s name on it. Jones said they had a lot of parental support to make it happen.
The choir hasn’t decided what they are going to do with the prize money, but Herring said he is playing around with the idea to take them back to New York to experience a Broadway musical.
“They will see we’re at this level of excellence now, but there is another level of excellence,” he said.
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Calvin Adkins
PULLING TOGETHER
Gospel choir takes first in NYC competition
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