MS Senate Honors FCAHS Select Choir

FCAHS Select Choir with Mississippi State Senators

Standing with the Select Chorus are (from left), Senators Joey Fillingane and Chris Johnson and right, Andrew T. Smigielski, Director of Choral Activities,

The Mississippi Senate on Thursday, January 30, 2020, honored the Select Chorus at Forrest County Agricultural High School with presentation of Senate Concurrent Resolution 510, commending their award winning performance On November 9, 2019, at the Riverland Choral Festival in Pearl where they earned three Superior Ratings, three Best in Class Honors and Grand Champion for the Choir Division.

Days before the competition, on November 6, 2019, the group gave its "Send off Concert" at Forrest County Agricultural High School for the students and staff. After the group sang for the Annual Forrest County Agricultural High School Veterans Day Celebration on November 7, they departed for New Orleans where they sang at the historic Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church for an audience of 1,500 Music Educators, All-State Honor Choir Participants, Clinicians and distinguished guests. They sang a rousing version of the National Anthem for the Senate on Thursday.

Each year, the Louisiana Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association chooses up to six groups to have the honor of singing a concert session for the State Conference. Typically, only three of those groups are below the collegiate level. In 2019, the Forrest County Agricultural High School Select Chorus was one of three high school choirs selected for the honor. To be selected, a choir must submit two years of audition recordings and proposed program of music. Forrest County Agricultural High School chose a program entitled "Psalms and Spiritual Songs" and submitted recordings from 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years. The program featured two pieces that were written for this group in honor of the occasion. The honor carries additional distinction this year as the chorus was selected from outside the State of Louisiana, representing both the school and the state of Mississippi. Today, Forrest County Agricultural High School in Brooklyn, serves students in grades nine through 12, providing all of the offerings of a larger metropolitan city school in a small educational setting.

Article courtesy of Arnold Lindsay, Press Secretary of the Mississippi Senate