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PJC students chosen for prestigious choir

Published or Revised March 07, 2006

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Members of the Paris Junior College music program were recently selected to the elite Two Year College All-State Choir. Pictured with PJC Chorale Director Pat Fowzer (left) and State Choir Director Dr. Dennis Schrock (third from left), are PJC students (from left) Marcus Bailey, Glenn Pruitt, April Black, Tiffany Edwards and Johnny Hicks.

Five students from Paris Junior College were recently chosen for the prestigious Two Year College All-State Choir and had the opportunity to perform during the Texas Music Educators Convention held recently in the San Antonio Convention Center. Paris Junior College Chorale members selected to the elite choir were Marcus Bailey, April Black, Johnny Hicks, and Glenn Pruitt, all of Paris, and Tiffany Edwards of Clarksville. The Texas Two Year All-State Choir was comprised of singers from 27 different community colleges from across Texas. They rehearsed under the direction of a nationally known conductor, Dr. Dennis Schrock, from the University of Oklahoma for three days during which time they learned tremendous musical lessons about tone quality, phrasing, music history, and articulation. On the final afternoon together, the group performed a stirring concert for the membership of TMEA. The choir brought the audience to its feet at the end of the concert and received an extended ovation, according to PJC choral director Pat Fowzer, who accompanied the group to San Antonio. The choir performed "Cantique de Jean Racine" by Faure and "J'entends le Moulin" by Patriquin. Both of these selections were in French. In addition, they sang "Crotalo" and "Las Seis Cuerdas," which were exciting folk songs sung in Spanish. They performed two Latin accappella selections, which included "Domine, Ad Adjuvandum Me Festina by Martini" and "Tu Es Petrus" by Palestrina. An English selection entitled "Water Night" by Eric Whitacre concluded this especially challenging repertoire.