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Greetings SFHS show choir families,
Thank you for your patience in waiting for word from me about scheduled show choir happenings. I was waiting to have a few questions answered from district administration, and as you may guess, they are all working hard to get plans in place and communication out to people as best they can.
As with every decision that has been made with respect to our schools, the health and safety of our students, staff, families, and community is our number one priority. Putting preventative measures in place to help stop or slow the spread of the virus is happening everywhere. Our show choir program will do likewise.
It saddens me that we will not be able to attend our last competition to Mitchell, South Dakota. I am SO very proud of these students for their hard work, their heart, and their resilience. This group of students has been through more ups and downs than any group should have to endure. My hope and belief is that we will all be stronger for it. Sometimes life throws you curve-balls. You take one day at a time, you share the best parts of yourselves with your neighbors when you can, and you celebrate what you have.
A little while ago, we all also received communication from Superintendent Giese that concerts will go on as expected but will be recorded instead of performed in front of live audiences. This thought was to keep things going if possible. I was lucky to have gotten ahold of her to explain that we actually can't record our concerts due to copyright issues. She and I both agree that the best solution would be to, instead, post-pone our concerts and aim to have them sometime in April, if at all possible. Everything is a moving target at this point, but this seems like the best scenario. We'd like to be able to celebrate our groups and our seniors, and to do it in front of an audience if it becomes safe.
There are a lot of things that haven't been talked about or decided yet, including financial considerations with the show choir program. I ask for your patience to give us time to figure out the big picture and what we can do with some of these variables. At least some of the expenses for Mitchell are non-cancelable, but it will take time for us to know all of the details.
We will also put rehearsals/practices on hold until we know of any make up dates we can get on the calendar. The MN State High School League just cancelled all games and interactions between schools. Teams and activities are allowed to meet to continue preparing. In our case, it makes more sense to postpone these rehearsals until we have some other things planned and in place. We will send out messages when we have a definite plan. Please assume that there will be no rehearsals until you hear back from us.
Should you have questions that I haven't been able to address yet, please email me at josiah.telschow@isd15.org. I may not be able to start responding to these emails until we are back at work on Monday, but I will get back to you all as best I can, as soon as I can.
Thank you again for your patience. This is a scary time. The best we can do is to take one day at a time, and to be the best versions of ourselves.
Thank you,
Josiah Telschow
Josiah Telschow
Choir Director, St. Francis High School
763-213-1564 (school)
The following is an important message from St. Francis Area Schools.
Hello choir families,
This is Josiah Telschow. We all recently received communication from the district about currently scheduled practices, concerts, and events.
The communication stated that concerts would go on as planned, but that students would perform without an audience and the concerts would be recorded. I have since spoken to the superintendent. We are not actually able to record concerts in consideration of copyright laws, so we have decided that we will look to rescheduling these concert to be held sometime in April, if possible.
When we have a tentative date, we will send that out as well.
As always, these descisions are being made with the best interest of our students, staff, and community members in mind. Thank you for your understanding!
Josiah Telschow
End of Message.
Our Show Choir consists of performers with competitive advanced understanding of music skills, vocal tones, and dance techniques. Many have theater and stage performance experience as dramatic expressions and movements are a part of every performance. Musical numbers are choreographed to live music, collectively singing and dancing in a show that lasts about 20 minutes. Strong command of breathing techniques is essential to an excellent vocal performance.
The full Show Choir consists of the choir, about ten band members, and six crew members. As an extra-curricular activity that begins in September, students rehearse multiple times per week. Competition season begins in January with several weekend competitions on Saturdays through late March.
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