GSIS 10 Year Anniversary Yearbook: Memories | Page 67

Sixth grade Lower Secondary Choir is band students, significantly smaller in size when Mincai Jin, Hyocompared to the choir in the jae Jeon and Jude Joung play the “Dai2013 school year. In the eyes ly Warm Up” song of the 2016 choir students, from their band book. their small size is nothing Band students spend to worry about, since they the first few minutes of class getting their instruare developing their skills ments ready and pulling out in preparation for Upper their music books, then they Secondary Choir. begin daily warm-ups followed by practicing music for their Sixth grade choir upcoming concert and KAIAC was a place of refestivals. markable growth, especially considering its minute size in 2014. “We had about six people to begin with, then two left, so at the end of the year we had four, but now we have twenty-eight,” said Brendan Hodge when asked to compare his sixth and eighth grade experiences. Brendan continued, “A lot of new kids come to Choir . . . so I feel like it’s just going to keep expanding and getting more popular as time goes on.” Another Choir student, Tobey Lee, explained, “Choir has definitely grown larger, as lots more people are interested in singing together.” For Choir students, the practice that takes place during class helps them develop their singing as well as their performing skills. Tobey Lee explained, “Through Choir, I have improved my pitch and my ability to work with others.” Youngwon Ju picks up his sheet music to see which piece it is. The students were given sheets for each song they sang. Changmin Moon said, “In sixth grade when I was in Choir, I wasn’t able to sing a high pitch, but now I can.” Changmin used to be nervous about being onstage, but because he performed about twelve times, he rarely gets nervous. After students finish Lower Secondary Choir, they move up to the next level: Upper Secondary Choir. Lucy Jung, a current ninth grade student who was part of Lower Secondary Choir last year said, “When we get to Choir the first thing we do is warm-up. Those are just some vocal exercises and they kind of helped me improve my vocal skills going up and down the scale. This made [my voice] more high pitched, which is good because I am soprano and I have to sing at a high pitch.” Like several other Lower Secondary students, Brendan plans to join Choir when he goes into ninth grade. “In the beginning I just joined Choir because I liked to sing...but now it’s sort of something I’ve grown attached to.” During the 2015 school year, the Choir won a Silver and a Gold rating at the KAIAC Large Group Choir Festival. GSIS Lower Secondary Choir may have decreased in members, but these recent awards show that hard work and accomplishments have been made. Further progress is greatly anticipated by the entire GSIS community in the years to come. Yoo Na Lee, Gi Yoon Park and Kyoung Won Kwon sing “The Rhythm of Life” written by Dorothy Fields. The choir students were divided into sections: alto, soprano, tenor and base. Min Cai Jin is hard at work with his saxophone. He played the song “Banana Boat” from his band book. Won Hyung Lee peeks at Aidan Anderson as he sings in his pretend microphone to the song “The Rhythm of Life.” The students not only collaborated well with each other but also had fun in their classes. GSIS Yearbook-LSS_Part 2.indd 67 Aidan Anderson and Leewon Koo fight to point at the music note with a fly swatter. They played games to familiarize themselves with the music notes. 67 4/17/16 5:59 PM