ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
The melodies you hear aren't coming from the birds, chirping their spring songs on your windowsill.
They're coming from Radford High School, where the sweet harmonies of a record seven students have been chosen for the All-Virginia Choir.
And, father north, the tune "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" is floating around the Giles High School area. The choir will appear Thursday on "CBS This Morning" to sing the Rodgers and Hammerstein favorite.
For the 41 students in the Giles High Symphonic Chorale, their 15 minutes of fame "is more like 22 seconds," said Giles choir director Larry Marion. "We'll be in the audience and come 8:30, the cameras will switch to us."
The group is heading to New York City today to compete in a national music festival. Marion scheduled several "cultural" activities for the trip, like hitting a "Phantom of the Opera" performance, singing in the Lincoln Center plaza and watching "CBS This Morning."
"Down at the bottom of my letter requesting tickets [to the morning show], I added this little P.S. that we'd be happy to perform their theme song," Marion said.
Every year, the Giles chorale raises money through concession stand sales so the group can travel somewhere new. They've competed in Nashville, parts of Florida, Philadelphia - even the Bahamas - and performed the national anthem for the Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves baseball games.
Seventeen seniors will graduate and leave the chorale, and with trips like these, Marion said he expects to see "a pretty good turnout come tryout time."
Closer to home, the seven Radford High School juniors and seniors chosen for All-Virginia Choir will head to Virginia Beach in April. They'll perform in concert with other soprano, tenor and bass singers from around the state.
Radford will fill almost half of the 20 possible slots from their district, which includes about 40 high schools from Lynchburg, Alleghany County, Danville, Campbell County and all points in between.
"Usually, we have one or two going state. I'm just ecstatic," said chorus director Lois Castonguay.
The teens were selected in February during the regional competition. Each person sang the spiritual, "He's Watching Over Israel," while standing alone in a room as judges sat behind a screen.
But the stress didn't faze them - they enjoy singing too much.
"I think I sang in the womb," joked Robyn Carroll.
And even with the extra night practices the group will have to endure for the next month, Castonguay makes it fun
"She has lots of enthusiasm," Carroll said. "She really pushes us to do our best."
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: LISA APPLEGATE/Staff. Radford High School studentsby CNBchosen for All-Virginia Choir (front row from left) Melissa Hicks,
Kira Jelincic, Robyn Carroll and (back rowfrom left) Kelly
Underwood, Zack Boor, Evan Gregory will perform in Virginia Beach in
April. Not pictured is Melissa Garnett. color.