Small Mixed:
Windsor Locks High School "Vocal Motion" - bronze
Everett High School "Pop Vox" - silver (1RU)
Scranton High School "First Edition" - bronze
Bartlett High School "Impressions - silver (GC, BC, BV, BB)
Large Mixed:
Andover High School "From Start to Finish" - silver
Chesterton High School "Sandpipers" - gold (1RU, BB)
Lowell High School "Sound Impressions" - silver
Daniel Hand High School "VIBE" - gold (GC, BV, BC)
Full results for the day posted on carmenscoring.com - click "Results"
Hope everyone had a great day! All performances were incredible! (I got to see every single one!)
One of the handful of things I don't understand about the Northeast circuit is the excess amount of caption awards given, yet they skimp on announcing placements.
Lmaooo its a way for everyone to not go home Empty handed!! So even if you get last, you can still go home with something like “Best upcoming show choir “ if that makes sense
No, I understand the captions and even the medal system. I recognize it's a different type of awards ceremony, really from anywhere else in the country. In a division of only 4 choirs, it just seems common sense to me to announce all 4 placements. But y'all don't do that. It's not a bad thing to emphasize medals over placements. I think a healthy argument can be made to focus on medals as opposed to placements actually.
I completely understand what you mean! It gets confusing sometimes with the placements. I went to a comp where they only announced the grand champion so the whole night we were all wondering who got 2nd and under.
Exactly- we emphasize medals and getting a group's personal best that we focus more on that. Tantasqua announced only 1RU and GC but Andover, DH, and many other comps go until 3RU. It's then up to the director to share placement, unless Carmen Scoring is there because we publish it on the website. We really strive to be transparent about scoring methods and results. Does that make sense?
Indeed, it does make sense. The medals are a tradition of y'alls and I get traditions are special. I've watched a number of awards ceremonies in the Northeast and typically the first thing they do is announce medals, so if one group received gold and everyone else is silver or bronze, well, there's your winner. The Midwest and South typically have a little more drama and suspense in the awards ceremonies. Is that a good thing or not? I don't know it's just a noted difference. The other piece about medals is that as the judging panel changes from competition to competition, so do the scores. It's not unheard of that a group may receive, say, a gold medal at one competition, then a week or two later receive a silver medal at their next competition. I don't think that neatly aligns with the goal of getting "a group's personal best," as their show likely was better and had grown from a few weeks prior, it was just a new set of judges that scored the show differently. You get what I mean?
On the plus side, the Northeast isn't the only area that does ratings. Perhaps they just do it the most passionately. I can understand the perspective of a music educator getting their students motivated to focus more on their rating than placement. The rating focuses more on the group's internal ability, while the placement externally compares them more to other groups. I think it's really cool toward the end of the season when a Northeast choir goes wild during that awards ceremony, because they achieved their first gold medal and it was that culminating experience of their season.
My initial comment genuinely was a little tongue-in-cheek. I don't actually think excessive captions are a bad thing. The judge's awards look fun and are really unique to the Northeast style of doing things. And if show choir isn't a little bit fun, then what's the point? But I maintain, just announce the 4 placements if they're going to get out anyways.
We've been trying over the past few years as a circuit to unify the scoresheet from a director's standpoint. It's an imperfect system and will always be because of how subjective everything is, but we are trying!
And honestly, one reason why we don't have trophies for the 2RU, 3RU is really because of the added cost for the competition! Haha.
Always enjoy chatting with you. Will you be at any festivals that I will be at this year?
Hmm probably not, sadly. I usually just go to a few local Ohio comps each year. But I am on SCC most Saturday nights filling in all the data, so I'll be around!
Middle school:
Randolph Community Middle School "Blue Flame" - bronze
Dudley Middle School "Prestige" - silver
Single-Gender-
Lowell High School "Soundsations" - silver
Andover High School "Nothin' But Treble" - bronze
Scranton High School "Glitter and Gold" - silver
Randolph High School "Iridescence" - bronze
Shepherd Hill Regional High School "T-Tones" - silver
Andover High School "Back to Bass-ics" - silver
Chesterton High School "Drifters" - silver
Tantasqua Show Choir Spectacular 2020
