North Harford’s Harmonic’s director reflects on singing season so far

  The North Harford High School Harmonics have been preparing and performing since the beginning of the school year.  The group consists of 12 students, six seniors and six juniors, that sing A Cappella music.

      Katelyn Hemling, choir director and teacher, comments “Out of the 12, 8 are new members! We graduated quite a few seniors from the group last year!”

      The singers perform a cappella “it […] is very vulnerable for singers because there is no piano to accompany them and it is typically only two people one one part,” says Hemling. 

     The group has been “doing very well!” Hemling says. “Given the circumstances of their past couple of years they are quickly learning and rising to challenges,” states Hemling. 

     The singers have the ability to “[…] know when something is important, it needs to be done,” junior Emily Cassidy comments.

     “A few days before the concert we were not where we needed to be, so we really cracked down on it and we got it done, and we were able to perform it for the concert[…]” Cassidy states.  “… It has definitely been a different experience especially because it is my first year in Harmonics and we have to start from scratch […]” Cassidy comments. 

    She comments, “[…] there is a lot of stuff that we did not get a chance to cover, or a lot of people forgot.”

     Hemling states that she does not have many concerns, “[…] this group loves to sing and they are working very hard.” The group has been focusing on “[…] bonding as a team and becoming more comfortable on stage,” comments Hemling.

     Cassidy states, “I am worried that we are not able to do our part, Harmonics is supposed to be a student-led group, so Ms. Hemling is not really supposed to be teaching us;  we are supposed to be able to learn our music on our own […].” 

     “[…] we are not at the point that we should be, [we should be] memorizing music and being able to memorize our repertoire, [that[ is something that we should be able to do and we are not exactly able to,” comments Cassidy.

     The group is currently preparing for their Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 22.

     Hemling says singing a cappella is “very challenging, but this group is taking major strides.”  She adds the group had performed their first concert and Hemling commented, “Our first concert was awesome. It was such a joy to be back on stage and I could not be more proud of how they sounded!”