Thanks Tim for your kind words. Congrats to you and the Colerain folks on your GC at Portsmouth! I don't think our paths are going to cross this year so have a great season!
I was worried when I read the article on the home page of showhoir.com that somehow Solon's win would be tarnished in the comments due to weather cancellations. When any choir stands up to Fairfield and Twinsburg and comes away with a GC it is a legit competition.
We have grown to appreciate the Solon program and believe they are one of the best in the country year in and year out. Some say they limit their competitions and that prohibits their field of competitors. Based on this event let's just say that can be put to rest.
Way to go M in M. You have fans everywhere since you are such a classy organization. Stay that way
I was worried when I read the article on the home page of showhoir.com that somehow Solon's win would be tarnished in the comments due to weather cancellations. When any choir stands up to Fairfield and Twinsburg and comes away with a GC it is a legit competition.
We have grown to appreciate the Solon program and believe they are one of the best in the country year in and year out. Some say they limit their competitions and that prohibits their field of competitors. Based on this event let's just say that can be put to rest.
Way to go M in M. You have fans everywhere since you are such a classy organization. Stay that way
Here I am replying late, but whatever. Seriously, awesome job to all the groups who came! I didn't et to see a lot in person, but I did watch some over the live feed (ironic, huh?). Despite having groups cancel, it was still a blast all day! I had the best time hosting Solon MIM! Even though I'm graduating, I definitely plan on coming back next year for all the fun! I hope all the groups that were not able to attend are planning on it next year! Congratulations Solon on your grand champ! Love you all
Congratulations to Marysville and all the choirs for putting on a terrific show under difficult conditions. I was fortunate to see finals live and loved it. I would say the judges got this one right. I am a huge Twinsburg fan and thought their choreo was super clean and the show entertaining but I felt Fairfield and Solon separated from them vocally and musically. I feel bad for Fairfield because that was a Grand Championship performance but unfortunately they ran into a Solon show that was outstanding. Congrats to Solon on another BV BB performance. Loved the show, particularly the ballad and closer! Hang in there Fairfield your medals are coming.
Fairfield Choraliers: I consistently enjoy your shows. I really need to watch Back To The Future, because I didn't really know what was going on. But I liked what I saw. The women's....
Swingers Unlimited: I was really looking forward to seeing your show! But the feed unfortunately wasn't cooperating. You all have had a great season so far and I hope your success continues!
So all in all, I pretty clearly enjoyed all of the shows. I definitely think the excellent panel of judges made the right call with Final awards. No controversy, scoring errors, or drama. The way it should be. This has been said many times already, but HUGE props to Nick, Alex, Patrick, and Marysville for hosting the livestream. It really does connect our community. #pinkcurtains
I'm sure Häakon would be sad to hear that...
I'm sorry the stream went jank when Marysville performed. It was probably because I wasn't behind the camera any longer
So I watched prelims and finals on livestream. Here are a few positive thoughts about the performing groups for what it's worth.
Grove City: I enjoyed the ballad the most. I mean, a lot of choirs do "Mad World" and it's been somewhat popular lately, but layering it with "Skyfall" was really sweet. It had a great sound - even from the live stream. I enjoyed the overall direction of the show! I think I probably would've put you all in Finals instead of Ravenswood - I'm sure it was close!
Harding: Cinderella has been done a few prominent times lately, but I don't think any used Party Rock Anthem. Personally I think it was a good effort for a "story show." Especially considering most Ohio groups stay traditional or instead have themes with Fairfield being really the only other group that does story shows. I think some of the transitions could be more polished and some of the song choice were kind of surface level (ex. "Bad" with the evil stepmother), usually with story shows everything is a bit more subtle. Regardless, I like the effort from this group and the direction they're going. Following Twinsburg can be tough and anyone calling you a copy of Wheaton or Los Al is really misguided. You keep doing you! And did those women's dresses really have capes? Hmm.
Fairfield Pure Elegance: The Miss America pageant theme was executed well, I thought. I enjoyed the opener and mix of songs performed. The costuming was patriotic and I enjoyed that the sashes on the dresses represented different states. I loved it - you really are superstars and Ohio's premiere women's group. Props on holding your own with a strong performance against mixed groups!
Matoaca: Wow, lots of energy! There was a lot of intense things going on there - those performers have to be exhausted. I enjoyed the show. I'm a huge OneRepublic fan, so really any time a choir performs any of those songs I like it. I think you all had the BEST combo all day. The sax. solo was terrific!
Ravenswood: Someone on the livestream said your theme was Titanic? It seemed like more of a sailing/nautical theme to me personally. Nonetheless, the tap number was spot on. "Anything Goes" was performed excellently for your closer. I hope you continue to make some noise in the WV circuit.
Fairfield Choraliers: I consistently enjoy your shows. I really need to watch Back To The Future, because I didn't really know what was going on. But I liked what I saw. The women's vocals came out STRONG in the opener. All of the soloists killed it! I really appreciate that Fairfield sings AND dances simultaneously. There weren't really many dance breaks and I don't think there needed to be with the delicately layered choreo that Fairfield consistently has. It's impressive. If there was a 'Best Set' award, then I think Fairfield would be a lock for it. It seems like this story show was very meticulously planned. It was my favorite for the day. Fairfield usually is one of those groups that has tremendous growth and development throughout the course of the competition season so I'm excited to see where this goes!
Twinsburg: GE keeps it original and you have to appreciate that. I feel like there should be "Keep Twinsburg Weird" shirts (a play on the Portland slogan). Those dance breaks. All of them. The entire choreo was REALLY clean although somewhat repetitive. I enjoyed it. I loved the variation of soloists, duets, trios, etc. Really brought something additional to the table. The backdrops seemed pretty plain compared to the intricate detail of last year. I think it was a lack of contrast understandably so on the livestream, because it sort of looked like there were bows/glitter there - but I could mostly see white. Overall very different show - I can see why there has been SO much buzz. Merry Christmas!
Solon: I think the best group of the day vocally. It sounded great even through the livestream. I'm not sure what was up with the TV screens during prelims and sometimes the tempo seemed off, but I liked everything. I think Suit & Tie is actually a good show choir song. And I love Fall Out Boy so that closer was interesting. Lots of different costumes! Props on all those changes. Nice work. Congrats on the GC - well earned.
Mini-Swingers: I loved your opener! "Make Your Own Kind of Music" is a song I really enjoy. It also made appearances in Lost and Dexter, so that's cool. I'm always really impressed with MS groups, so great work out there!
Swingers Unlimited: I was really looking forward to seeing your show! But the feed unfortunately wasn't cooperating. You all have had a great season so far and I hope your success continues!
So all in all, I pretty clearly enjoyed all of the shows. I definitely think the excellent panel of judges made the right call with Final awards. No controversy, scoring errors, or drama. The way it should be. This has been said many times already, but HUGE props to Nick, Alex, Patrick, and Marysville for hosting the livestream. It really does connect our community. #pinkcurtains
To add onto what Alex said, the Matoaca kids were extremely nice again this year. The amount of passion and talent they all have is astounding! You won't find many groups out there as nice or caring as those kids. Shout out to Virginia show choirs everywhere and I'm happy that Matoaca has chosen to make Marysville their choice of a competition to travel to year after year.
Solons show still has me in awe. It was flawless!!
Marysville Swingers were genius. As always.
I had a great time at the showcase and I'm so ecstatic that we were able to make it! Thank you swingers for hosting a solid competition!! Love you guys!
Thank you! I'm sure our director would love to hear that! I agree Solon's show was good! It was the first time I have seen it this year, and it was a nice result in having heard about it for a couple months. Twinsburg and Fairfield were also groups I have been hearing about lately. The "Big Three" at this competition absolutely killed and they should be proud!
However, my favorite group of the entire day was definitely Matoaca. Having not made finals the year before, they blew me out of the water! So much energy and passion in their performance! Every single person in that tiny little group left their heart on that stage.
Shocked at how many awards Twinsburg won and they still didn't place 2nd! I'm not. 2 of the captions essentially had little to no impact on the score sheet. While I agree that Twinsburg had great costumes and Lanoue was likely rocking something to get Best Dressed Director, costuming in and of itself isn't going to determine placements especially when other choirs have pretty good costuming too.
So considering the other two captions GE won, I just think it speaks to how tight of a competition it was between the top 3. The vocal and choreo scores were likely very close to one another in order to have the result spread that we had. And I think that's good for show choir - keeps us on our toes.
I agree with Jeff. I've seen grand champions with no captions. It really just goes down to scoring. If Group A has a 90 in choreo and a 60 in vocals, Group B has a 60 in choreo and a 90 in vocals, and Group C has an 80 in both, captions no longer have any effect on results.
Shocked at how many awards Twinsburgh won and they still didn't place 2nd!
I'm not. 2 of the captions essentially had little to no impact on the score sheet. While I agree that Twinsburg* had great costumes and Lanoue was likely rocking something to get Best Dressed Director, costuming in and of itself isn't going to determine placements especially when other choirs have pretty good costuming too.
So considering the other two captions GE won, I just think it speaks to how tight of a competition it was between the top 3. The vocal and choreo scores were likely very close to one another in order to have the result spread that we had. And I think that's good for show choir - keeps us on our toes.
Solons show still has me in awe. It was flawless!!
Marysville Swingers were genius. As always.
I had a great time at the showcase and I'm so ecstatic that we were able to make it! Thank you swingers for hosting a solid competition!! Love you guys!
I wish I could sit down and thank every single one of you who made this competition happen. YOU are the reason we are able to continue this legendary invitational.
On a different note; Thank you to the supporters of the stream today! You cringed through some technical difficulties (some funny, *cough*pink curtain*cough) and beared with us on our magical journey of mildly mediocre live streaming... You gave us great feedback and kept us entertained all day with your comments This would literally have no purpose if you weren't out there watching.
Congrats to Music In Motion on their victory tonight. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) absolutely killed it tonight! You should all be very proud!
Wowowowowowow. What an amazing and hectic day! Couldn't have asked for a better final showcase. Had just a spectacular day hosting the Fairfield Choraliers, and every group that was able to come was amazing! The biggest of congratulations to Solon MIM for their win, y'all were great.
With all of this being said, I'm going to bed. Safe travels to all going home tonight!
But I liked what I saw. The women's....
