The Men’s Ensemble at Sandy Creek High, made up of members of the Select Mixed Chorus, are $1,000 closer to funding a trip to perform with the Grammy award-winning group, Chanticleer, this spring in San Francisco.

The school’s Men’s Ensemble is one of 12 of the best choirs from throughout the United States that have been selected to perform with Chanticleer for a single evening concert March 29, 2010 on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. This is a first for Chanticleer in its mission to educate and outreach to inspiring young singers from across America.

While researching opportunities to raise money for the trip, the ensemble heard about a competition promoting the new hit FOX series “Glee” on radio station B98.5’s Steve and Vikki Morning Show. The contest called for vocal ensembles and choirs to submit a video of their group with the winner receiving $1,000.

The students and their choral director, Millie Turek, learned early morning on Oct. 7 that they had won. In order to make their entry stand out from the rest, Turek says the students took a different approach from merely filming a performance.

“The video is more like a music video than a show choir performance. The students were very creative and we filmed all over Sandy Creek. We had a lot of fun making it and these are terrific students,” she says.

Students performing in the video are lead singer Jesse Alexander, first tenor Tyler Green, second tenor Aaron Biemiller, first bass Anthony Spezzano, second bass Paul Merrill and Chad Sims. Fellow chorus members Stephanie Earle and Thomas Eastin were the film crew with Aaron Biemiller as editor and Turek as, in her words, “the sound girl.”

The winnings will be used to help fund the students’ trip to perform with Chanticleer this spring.

Chanticleer, based in San Francisco, is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its 12 male voices ranging from countertenor to bass and its original interpretations of vocal literature from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music.

“This is going to be an incredible musical and educational experience for my students,” said Turek.

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