Harmonics wraps up year with several events; Choir reflects on experiences

     On Friday, April 29, The North Harford High School Harmonics was invited to sing at a Harford County Public Schools Central Office Meeting. This is one of the few times that the Harmonics group has been able to perform in the community due to the COVID-19 restrictions that have taken place this year. 

     The Choral Director, Katelyn Hemling, commented, “this was an incredibly cool opportunity to perform for county executives and to have our program recognized! So many meeting attendees stopped to talk with our students, and listen to them sing. I love getting out and singing in the community!” 

     Junior Ethan Jourdan comments, “It was a really awesome experience to be able to perform for such high-up people in the school system. It was nice to not only be able to perform for them, but also get to know some of the people who are running the curriculums that got us to this point. It was a really great bonding experience for me and the other members of Harmonics to have and I think we all got a little closer after that.”

     Senior Lauren Richardson states, “It was a very rewarding performance. To see the smiling faces of the higher ups in education was so humbling as it was our first performance back in public from two years without singing.”

     Junior Sean Smith states, “On that Friday we were frantically trying to get as ready as we possibly could. We practiced for an hour before we left. We also sang the entire way to the meeting in a way to perfect these songs. When we arrived to the meeting for the Harford county Central Office Meeting we performed in the lobby as all of the people came in, we were even graced with the ability to talk to a few people from our county too.”

     Junior Julia Eakes states, “Being in Harmonics is sometimes a struggle because of the time commitment and the rehearsals right before the concerts are usually stressful, but during other times it’s a lot of fun because I get to sing with my close friends which is something I love to do.”

     Senior Sierra Ables says, “the difficulties in Harmonics would be some of the music we are given. It’s amazing practice to learn rhythm as a reward.”  She added, “there aren’t many difficulties in general other than personal difficulties about the group.”

    The senior continued,  “There are many rewards, I now have new friends and have a group I’m able to be myself in, I have learned a lot about music and was able to perform pieces.”  She commented that she believes she underestimated “on whether I could do it, and so much more. Harmonics will always be my favorite class continuing out of high school,” Ables adds. 

     Junior Ethan Jourdan adds, “being in a class in which there is a very high standard set on the difficulty and volume of repertoire is very challenging. The hardest part to me is maintaining all the songs and harmonic contexts that are presented in many arrangements. performing said repertoire, however, is extremely rewarding. The best part is seeing the audience be engaged and love the music makes it all worth it ten fold.”