Tri-C ESC events mark Arts in Our Schools Month
Tri-C ESC sponsored the Festivals of Choir event at Smithville High on March 4, featuring choirs from all high schools in Wayne County. Hundreds participated in the event, singing two pieces with their respective choirs and then combining for two selections directed by guest conductor Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt.
March, as declared by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, is Arts in Our Schools Month.
Dr. Michelle Muro, fine arts consultant at Wayne County's Tri-County Educational Service Center, has written to the governor each of the last two years asking him to make the proclamation.
“Arts education includes dance, drama/theater, media arts, music and visual art,” she said, “but visual art and music are the only two content areas that have national advocacy campaigns.”
Muro went on to note the two signature events Tri-C ESC held to celebrate the month of all things arts-related.
First, the Wayne County Middle School Art Exhibit, which was held at the Wayne Center for the Arts, featured artwork by students from Dalton, Green, Northwestern, Norwayne, Orrville, Rittman, John R. Lea (Waynedale), Triway and Edgewood (Wooster).
Awards were presented to the Best in Show artists. For 2-D art, the winner was Grace Conrow, an eighth-grader at Norwayne Middle School whose color drawing “Heroes” won the day. The Best in Show artist for a 3-D work was eighth-grader Mary Fell with a ceramic tea set titled “Sleeping Beauty Tea Set: I Threw All This on the Wheel, All of It!”
Tri-C ESC also sponsored the Festivals of Choir Event held at Smithville High School on March 4, which featured choirs from all high schools in Wayne County including Orrville, Smithville, Rittman, Dalton, Norwayne, Northwestern, Chippewa and Wooster. Hundreds participated in the event, singing two pieces with their respective choirs and then combining for two selections directed by guest conductor Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt, who formerly taught in the music department of the Ohio State University and who now is a professor emerita of choral studies at the University of Toronto.
The selections she chose for the two combined pieces had special significance as the first piece, “All the Way Home,” was composed by Sarah Quartel and was chosen as March is Women’s History Month. The second piece, “Down by the Riverside,” arranged by Terry J. Barham, was chosen for its connection to Ohio, as the Ohio River was the demarcation point of freedom for slaves on the Underground Railroad escaping slavery.
The choir festival was originally started by Lowell Frantz of Smithville, who had a long and illustrious career as a musician and music educator. This year’s iteration of the concert was the 51st event, with the first festival held Tuesday, March 12, 1974. Sadly, Frantz passed away Feb. 16, just a few weeks before the festival. The Smithville High School choir gave a special performance during his funeral service.