Lexie Shadix, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor

On Oct. 17, Berry hosted the Big Berry Sing, a vocal arts festival, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. High schools from around the region were invited to register and bring 20 of their choir students to participate in workshops and performances. Berry voice majors and those involved in the Berry choirs also showcased their talents to the high school students during the day. The festival was created by two professors at Berry: Paul Neal, the director of choral activities and associate professor of music, and Stefanie Cash, the director of music education and associate professor of music. 

“In some form or fashion, [the festival] has been going since 2016,” Cash said. 

COVID-19, however, pulled many universities to a halt, and their various activities stopped along with them. After COVID-19, Neal reinvented how he wanted to conduct the festival and gave it the name “Big Berry Sing.”

“It’s just a little bit different in that the students don’t have to necessarily come with all their music learned, where they did before,” Cash said. “It’s more of a showcase than, ‘Hey, invite all of your parents.’ We kind of sing for one another.” 

Over 200 students from 16 schools participated in the festival this year. During the day, they do large performances and smaller group work. The students are separated into two groups; the sopranos and altos are taught by Cash, while the tenors and bases are taught by Neal. In these groups, they each learn a piece specific to their voices as well as a mixed piece that the two groups perform together at the end of the day. In the workshops, or sectionals, the professors discuss tone, enunciation, vowel shapes and pitches, among other things.

“[Participating high school students] spend time in sectionals, which means that the guys will go with Dr. Neal and the girls will go with Dr. Cash and fine tune the individual parts,” Emily Cribb, a sophomore majoring in music education and one of the student workers who helped organize the event, said.

Cribb not only helped plan the event but was also a participant during her freshman year of high school. 

“That was when I knew I wanted to do music education,” Cribb said. “It was when I knew I wanted to do it at Berry. It was a really cool experience.” 

 In total, three songs are used for the festival. Cash and Neal picked pieces for the festival that they felt would sing well for the groups and something that could feasibly be learned in such a short amount of time. The songs also had poignant meanings, allowing students not only to connect with the music through the sound, but also through the emotions it speaks of. This year, one of the pieces Neal used focused on the idea of processing loss, and the piece Cash taught her group was about rebirth after COVID-19. 

The Big Berry Sing is no small festival, if the name is anything to go by, and preparation for it was not quick. It began nine weeks ago, at the beginning of the 2024 fall semester. 

“Dr. Neal does a lot of the logistics to prepare, but he also uses three different student workers,” Cash said.

Along with Cribb, another one of these student workers was Anna Leigh Aultman, a sophomore majoring in music education. She previously assisted with the elementary and middle school choir festival that Berry hosts in the spring, but this was her first year working at the high school festival. At the beginning of the semester, the student workers were given a list of things that need to be done each week leading up to Big Berry Sing. They had to order lunches for the students, coordinate with the faculty in Ford dining hall to set up chairs for the workshops, make seating charts and name tags, find additional students to help during the day and order shirts. During the day, their schedules were just as busy as the weeks spent preparing for it. 

“We signed in the schools as they got there,” Aultman said. “We would give them all of their items for the day. Then, once the day and the event got started, we helped facilitate some things.” 

The student workers remained available in the lobby of the Bell Recital Hall or the Ford dining hall in case any problems arose, helped pass out lunches and spoke with the students during lunch. 

“We were able to talk with them about Berry and about their current schools,” Aultman said. 

Once the day was over, the student workers helped clean up and reset everything for the following school day.  

The Big Berry Sing offers high school students a day to receive valuable musical instruction under a college professor. 

“Having an experience with college professors who hold you to that high standard before you are actually in college is eye opening,” Cribb said. “I think [participants] gain really valuable music insights.” 

It also provides a chance for high schoolers to ask questions to music majors at Berry. The music majors not only make themselves available to answer questions about what they are studying, but they are also able to talk to participants about other aspects of Berry life. Overall, it was a day intended to be enjoyed. 

“I want the students to have a great time, and I know Dr. Neal feels that way as well,” Cash said. “I want them to come away with a great experience of loving Berry and loving music even more.” 

Many of the participants did just that, reporting that they had a great experience at the festival. In the future, Cash anticipates the continuation of the festival, and Aultman offered some advice to singers who may be participating for the first time. 

“Keep an open mind during the day and stay engaged,” Aultman said. “Dr. Neal always says, ‘You’ll never be in a room with the same choir again, this moment is special.’ He’s right, all those students will never be in the same room again. Take advantage of the opportunity to sing with this specific special choir that has been curated and learn from everyone that you can.” 

 Big Berry Sing creates a space for high school students to lift their voices in unison and become more skilled in their craft. It is a time to experience Berry and learn about what all it has to offer. Above all, it is a time to remind students of why they love singing and encourage them to continue in their pursuit of it. This is a unique opportunity Berry provides, and many involved with it hope that its future remains bright and perfectly pitched.