By: Kathy McDermott Goodman
MiltonNews DAILY Correspondent
On Sunday, March 6, fifth graders from Milton-Union and Tipp City Schools, as well as eleven other area elementary schools, participated in the 8th Annual ACES Concert. The All-County Elementary Sing Chorus is the culmination of a Songbook Project in Miami County sponsored by the Melody Men Chorus, an all male a capella vocal group which sings in the Barbershop style of music.
The students sang such classics as “Do-Re-Mi”, “Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah” and “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. The Melody Men showcased their talent with “There’s A Meetin’ Here Tonight”, “When She Loved Me”, and the break-out quartet Noteability performing the crowd favorite “The Chicken Song”. The Melody Men and ACES Chorus combined their voices for “Give My Regards to Broadway” and “This Land Is Your Land”.
Participating students from Milton-Union Schools were: Myonah Anderson, Corinne Bogard, Hannah Everhart, Jacob Goodman, Abbie Goudy, Katlyn Grisso, Kimberly Huges, Greg McCarroll, Katie McCormick, Maggie Moore, Tara Rickard, Erin Shipe, Chris Todd and Ashlynn White.
Tipp City LT Ball Students who participated were: Payton Brown, Deina Delgado, Matthew Garber, Taylor Haggerty, Alexandria Henry, Cara Kronour, Daniel McConnell, Hunter McKinney and Logan Treciak.
The Guest Conductor for this event was Beth Fair, a Miami County native. She is currently teaching choir and general music for Piqua City Schools. Mrs. Dee Earl, Music Teacher for Milton-Union Schools, was the Accompanist.
Background Information on the ACES Concert / Melody Men
The Melody Men purchased a classroom set of “Get America Singing Again” songbooks in 2002 for every school in Miami County to encourage singing. In addition to donating these books, they also offered each school the opportunity to have a performance to have a performance by a quartet from the Melody Men. In the intervening years a second volume of the “GASA” songbooks has been added and just this past year a CD set for each volume was purchased for the schools who wished to use them.
It was the hope of the Melody Men that the songs in these books would become and integral part of each school’s music program. A plan to allow every student across the county to participate in a combined sing-along was only an early dream. Understanding that this would be a massive project, the Melody Men turned to the music teachers to help in this task.
The music teachers recommended that students from specific grade levels be nominated to make the group size manageable. The music teachers then selected the songs to be performed and nominated students to participate. The students practiced 2-3 times per week, during recess, for the past couple of months.
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