Cypress Lake Vocal Department: News

It was great to see so many prospective students at last night's Panther Showcase.  We hope that you are planning to join the Panther family.  Take a look around the site.  If you have any questions about the auditions or how the vocal department operates, just go to the contact info and Mr. Stroh a message.  If you would like to see a great display of talent in the Vocal Department, come to the Vocal Cabaret this Thursday evening.  Just mention that you are an 8th grade student planning to audition for the Vocal Department and you will be given a free ticket.  We hope to see your there.

The Vocal Department Cabaret is Thursday, Feb. 4 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium.  Tickets are $5.00 and all vocal department members are required to be there.

 

Here are the acts that will be performing.  These are not in performance order.  All acts must provide an introduction on a note card.  Introduction should include brief information about the performers and something about the song.  It should be written neatly.

 

Ashlee Wallace - Stay (Sugarland)

Abe Cerra - King and Queen of Our Time

Alissa Roca & Marcello Marsalli - Stay Frederick Stay

Sarah McIntyre - Come Fly With Me

Candice Bradshaw - I'm Not Afraid

Diana Landa - Almost Lover

Cassidy Tinkoff - Stay (Lisa Loeb)

Danielle Huston - Stars and the Moon

Cassi Lee - The Sound of You and I

Emma Coleman -Who Will Save Your Soul

Justine Fitzgerald - Don't Cry Out Loud

Averie Bendana - Don't Know Why

Michaela Slamka - And So It Goes

Amanda Cotto with Max Hoffman - Realize

Brittany Newland - Get Here

Lauren Davis and Shadoe Valentin - The Prayer

Amanda, Haley, Justine & Marie - Party in the USA

Cassie, Brittani and Cassi - You Are My Sunshine

Eden Shelton - Feeling Good

Taylor Nave - Hallelujah

Quenton Thomas - So High

Our production of Sweet Charity has been selected to perform at the 2010 Florida State Thespian Conference.  The show will play in Morsani Hall at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center on Friday, April 9th.  Morsani Hall is a 2,610 seat main hall at TBPAC and houses Broadway National Tours, Orchestra, Opera and Ballets.  This is an amazing opportunity for our students to be able to perform in one of the greatest halls in the South.

As a warm-up and fundraiser for this event, we have arranged to perform the show locally at Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall in late March.  Dates and ticket info will be posted as soon as it is finalized.

Congratulations to our cast, orchestra and crew for this outstanding achievement!!

New learning tracks for The A Cappella Group are now up in the music section.  Go all the way to the last page to find them.

We are holding a vocal dept. parent meeting on this Thursday, October 29th at 7 PM at the Reflection Lakes clubhouse.  This meeting is to get started on the Madrigal Dinner preparations.  We need a lot of help to make this annual event happen.  Please call Carole Davis at 872-7277 for directions and to RSVP.  We hope to see you there.

The Cypress Lake Center for the Arts Vocal Department is proud to welcome Young Voices from Egeln, Germany as guest artists for our Fall Choral Concert.  This 25 member choir consists of graduates and students of Egeln High School as a way of continuing to sing after high school.  The now 10 year old choir has won numerous awards throughout Germany and Europe and are very excited to be making their American debut.  They will be in Florida for 9 days and we are fortunate to be able to host them for one of their concerts.  The group will get a chance to meet and interact with our own vocal students during two school days, and then we will sing a combined number to end the concert.

Also featured on the concert will be our choirs from Cypress Lake Center for the Arts.  The Concert Choir, Intermezzo Women's Choir, Cypress Chorale and The A Cappella Group will all perform.  The concert is Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m. in the Cypress Lake High School Auditorium.

For more information on Young Voices, check out their website - http://www.youngvoices.de/index.html

Our new website, which is actually our old website, is now back up and running. It should be completely up to date by the end of his weekend. Thanks for your patience and we look forward to a much more functional website.

Thanks to the over 100 students that auditioned for the production this year.  It is always quite a daunting task to pare that number down.  If we were not able to cast you, I hope that you will consider still being a part of the show, by working on the technical side.

 

 

 

And now without further ado..........

 

 

 

Charity - Kacie Phillips

Helene - Allison Scott

Nickie - Natasha Poinciano

Carmen - Brittany Rincon

Rosie - Rachel Freeze

Suzanne - Ashley Forrester

Frenchy - Eden Shelton

Betsy - Brooke Cole

Elaine - Krissy Martin

Ursula - Katy Gibble

Oscar - Jeremy Miller

Vittorio - Mike Nance

Herman - Ian Castro

Daddy - Joey Whitesman

Asst #1 - Tony Sansone

Asst #2 - Lucas Nunn

 

Female Ensemble

Jordan Albright

Sloan Brettholtz

Amanda Cotto

Marissa Daher

Raven Day

Jessie Ditzel

Justine Fitzgerald

Quintaysia Goodley

Ali Hooks

Haley Huston

Hannah Luckow

Christine Magers

Sarah McIntyre

Rachel Moser

Taylor Nave

Brittani Newland

Lindsey Palmquist

Savannah Reid

Olivia Rodriguez

Michaela Slamka

Jayne Telusma

Stephanie Weinberg

Nicole Willis

 

Male Ensemble

Wil Harbison

Willie Filkowski

Dallas Stobb

Eli Baldwin

Eric Callari

Chris Cooper

Philip Gold

Matthew Hengel

Corey Robinson

Daniel Rye

The results are in.  After hours of listening to the same auditions over and over and trading names back and forth, I have finally settled on this year's TAG members.  As the upperclassmen know, this is the day of the year I dread the most.  I know how many of you are hoping and praying and it is so hard to cut it down to just a few members.  For all of you who auditioned, thank you and there were some great auditions this year.  I will be happy to provide feedback  on your strenths and weaknesses so you can improve.  I highly recommend that you do this.  I will also play you parts of your audition and go over some things with you.

 

The list is in alphabetical order.

 

Can I have a drum roll please.............

 

Sopranos

Candace Bradshaw

Haley Huston

Cassi Lee

Brittani Newland

Alissa Roca

Michaela Slamka

 

Altos

Alyssa Ambrose

Lauren Davis

Justine Fitzgerald

Taylor Nave

Eden Shelton

Stephanie Weinberg

 

Tenors

Ian Castro

Tony Sansone

Mike Nance

Wil Harbison

 

Basses

Lucas Nunn

Colin Davis

Neal Eagan

 

Percussion

Paul Gavin

Cypress Lake Center for the Arts very own The A Cappella Group has been recognized for their latest album Long Overdue.  Long Overdue has been nominated in three categories for the 2009 Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards.  The awards, which are the a cappella world's version of the Grammys, honor outstanding albums in a variety of categories ranging from professional groups to high school groups.

 

The A Cappella Group's latest album has been nominated in the following categories:

*Best High School Album

*Best High School Song for "Karmastistion"

* Best High School Solo - Katie Campbell for "Hands"

 

The A Cappella Group has been nominated before.  In 2007, T.A.G. - We're It! was nominated for Best High School Album and "Bring Me To Life" was nominated for Best High School Song.  The winners will be announced on April 1, 2009, so we are hoping for more good news.  You can see the entire list of nominees at http://www.casa.org/node/1656"\o"Cara Nominations"

 

Congratulations to all of the members of The A Cappella Group for this outstanding achievement.

Attention Parents!!!

We are in desperate need of some more volunteers to make the Madrigal Dinner possible. We need volunteers to make the homemade gingerbread cakes and the mini cheesecake tarts. You will be given a recipe and the ingredients if you need them. Many parent typically donate the ingredients, but we can provide them if you can only volunteer to make the items.

We also need 3 to 4 more parents to work each night in the kitchen. The students do all of the work in the front of the house, but we need parents to help in the kitchen. Again, we have detailed instructions for all of the jobs, we just need some more volunteers to help work it.

We also are looking for food donations if you are able. Here is a list of the items we still need.

Soda (coke, diet coke, sprite)
unsweetened tea
sweetened tea
decaffeinated coffee (2 cans)
water
cherry tomatoes
half and half
cheese chunk for cubing(swiss, cheddar, colby jack, pepper jack)(7 lbs
each)
Grapes (green & red) (24lbs each)
butter pats

We hope you can do your part to help make our holiday tradition a reality.

Cypress Lake Center for the Arts has been selected as the host for the 2009 International Championship of High School A Cappella South Semi-Final. The event on March 14th, will feature the finest high school a cappella groups in the South competing for a spot in the National Finals at Lincoln Center. There will also be a special guest college group that will be announced soon. Mark your calendars to see this great event as our very own T.A.G. tries to regain their 2007 South title and earn another trip to New York City.

The $65.00 deposit and the trip registration forms for the Colorado trip are due Wednesday, October 8. Please make sure you get these in to reserve your spot. The deposit is refundable up until December 1, 2008. If you have lost your trip packet, the entire packet is on the website in the document section. Each person going on the trip needs a completed trip registration form.

Dont' miss this important deadline - Get yours in today!!!!

The preliminary itinerary for the Colorado trip is now online. It includes a detailed itinerary, cost breakdown, registration form and the payment schedule. It is in the document section. The first payment deadline in October 8th, so get your form in and make sure you have a spot.

There are now learning tracks for cast members of The Producers and members of The A Cappella Group. The tracks are in the music section in a group folder all the way at the bottom of the list.

There are now T-shirt and Hoodie design for you to view in the photo section. Please look at all of them and then let us know which designs you like best and what you would like them on, a t-shirt or a hoodie.

Once you have picked your favorites, please post for them in the guestbook.

Max Bialystock – Parker Slaybaugh
Leo Bloom – Eli Johnson
Ulla – Kacie Phillips
Roger DeBris – Conner Zerilla
Carmen Ghia – Jeremy Miller
Franz Liebkind – Tony Franz

Ensemble – (Detailed Below)
Jordan Albright
Eli Baldwin
Michael Bertino
Tyler Bottema
Kristin Buckingham
Jami Busch
Brianna Childress
Maicie Clark
Brooke Cole
Amanda Cotto
Lauren Davis
Willie Filkowski
Morgan Finerty
Ashley Forrester
Rachel Freeze
Wil Harbison
Jackie Hassett
Haley Huston
Haely Jardas
Krissy Martin
Kailyn Mitchell
Mike Nance
Taylor Nave
Brittani Newland
Olivia Rodriguez
Tony Sansone
Allison Scott
Eden Shelton
Daniel Spikowski
Christian Steffens
Sophie Stein
McKenzee Stephens
Meg Tullos
Osvaldo Vargas
Bonita Violette
Joey Whitesman
Nicole Willis


Detailed Ensemble Parts –

USHERETTE #1 – Brooke Cole
USHERETTE #2 – Kristin Buckingham
FIRST NIGHTERS –
Tony Sansone & Taylor Nave
Daniel Spikowski & Bonita Violette
Eli Baldwin & Haley Huston
Wil Harbison & Olivia Rodriguez
Osvaldo Vargas & Brittani Newland
Christian Steffens & Meg Tullos
Kailyn Mitchell & Sophie Stein
WORKMAN – Willie Filkowski
BLIND VIOLINIST – Joey Whitesman
BUM – Wil Harbison
BAG LADY – Haely Jardas
NUNS – McKenzee Stephens & Rachel Freeze
STREET CLEANER – Mike Nance
LATE NIGHTERS –
Nicole Willis
Brianna Childress
Lauren Davis
Eli Baldwin
Osvaldo Vargas
Allison Scott
Jordan Albright
Jackie Hassett
Tony Sansone
Daniel Spikowski
Maicie Clark
Morgan Finerty
Ashley Forrester
Jami Busch
Christian Steffens
Eden Shelton
Amanda Cotto
Tyler Bottema
HOLD ME – TOUCH ME – Krissy Martin
LICK ME – BITE ME – Morgan Finerty
KISS ME – FEEL ME – Lauren Davis
LITTLE OLD LADIES
Haely Jardas
Haley Huston
Maicie Clark
Amanda Cotto
Jami Busch
Olivia Rodriguez
Brooke Cole
Ashley Forrester
Kristin Buckingham
Allison Scott
Taylor Nave
Rachel Freeze
Eden Shelton
Kailyn Mitchell
Nicole Willis
Jordan Albright
Sophie Stein
Meg Tullos
McKenzee Stephens
Brianna Childress
Brittani Newland
Jackie Hassett
ACCOUNTANTS –
Wil Harbison
Daniel Spikowski
Tony Sansone
Joey Whitesman
Osvaldo Vargas
Christian Steffens
Mike Nance
Willie Filkowski
Eli Baldwin
Tyler Bottema
MR. MARKS – Michael Bertino
GIRLS WITH PEARLS
McKenzee Stephens
Rachel Freeze
Brooke Cole
Eden Shelton
Ashley Forrester
Jordan Albright
Maicie Clark
Allison Scott
Nicole Willis
Brianna Childress
MISFIT SHOWGIRL – Bonita Violette
CHAMPAGNE GIRLS –
Taylor Nave
Jami Busch
Lauren Davis
Haley Huston
Morgan Finerty
Meg Tullos
Kristin Buckingham
Jackie Hassett
Haely Jardas
Amanda Cotto
Brittani Newland
Olivia Rodriguez
Sophie Stein
Kailyn Mitchell
PIGEONS
Christian Steffens
Willie Filkowski
Daniel Spikowski
Joey Whitesman
BRYAN, THE SET DESIGNER – Osvaldo Vargas
KEVIN, THE COSTUME DESIGNER – Tony Sansone
SCOTT, THE CHOREOGRAPHER – Wil Harbison
SHIRLEY MARKOWITZ – Bonita Violette
SABU, THE HOUSEKEEPER – Mike Nance
AMERICAN INDIAN – Christian Steffens
POLICEMAN – Daniel Spikowski
CONSTRUCTION WORKER – Tyler Bottema
COWBOY – Eli Baldwin
MILITARY/NAVY – Joey Whitesman
JACK LAPIDUS – Eli Baldwin
DONALD DINSMORE – Willie Filkowski
JASON GREEN – Micheal Bertino
AUDITIONING HITLERS –
Tony Sansone
Daniel Spikowski
Osvaldo Vargas
Taylor Nave
Jordan Albright
Wil Harbison
Joey Whitesman
Mike Nance
Haely Jardas
Jackie Hassett
Tyler Bottema
Kailyn Mitchell
Sophie Stein
PIANIST – Christian Steffens
TICKET TAKER – Joey Whitesman
BAVARIAN PEASANTS –
Eli Baldwin
Bonita Violette
Krissy Martin
Kailyn Mitchell
Wil Harbison
Osvaldo Vargas
Haley Huston
Olivia Rodriguez
Brittany Newland
Mike Nance
Brooke Cole
Lauren Davis
Amanda Cotto
Kristin Buckingham
NAZI TENOR – Tony Sansone
FOLLIES GIRL #1 (BEER MUG) – Jami Busch
FOLLIES GIRL #2 (VALKYRIE) – Haely Jardas
FOLLIES GIRL #3 (PRETZEL) – Meg Tullos
FOLLIES GIRL #4 (BRATWURST) – Morgan Finerty
FOLLIES GIRL #5 (GERMAN EAGLE) – Taylor Nave
TAPPING BROWN SHIRTS –
Mike Nance
Eden Shelton
Rachel Freeze
Ashley Forrester
Allison Scott
Wil Harbison
McKenzee Stephens
Brianna Childress
Maicie Clark
Nicole Willis
“ROLF” – Willie Filkowski
“MEL” – Michael Bertino
THE “HEIL-LOS” –
Tony Sansone
Brooke Cole
Amanda Cotto
Osvaldo Vargas
Lauren Davis
Kristin Buckingham
STALIN – Christian Steffens
CHURCHILL – Eli Baldwin
FDR – Daniel Spikowski
STORM TROOPERS –
Joey Whitesman
Bonita Violette
Jackie Hassett
Olivia Rodriguez
Brittani Newland
Haley Huston
Krissy Martin
Jordan Albright
Tyler Bottema
Sophie Stein
Kailyn Mitchell
SERGEANT – Daniel Spikowski
O’ROURKE – Wil Harbison
O’RILEY – Tyler Bottema
O’HOULIHAN – Osvaldo Vargas
JUDGE MAXWELL – Willie Filkowski
BAILIFF – Christian Steffens
FOREMAN OF THE JURY – Bonita Violette
DISTRICT ATTORNEY – Michael Bertino
JURY OF LITTLE OLD LADIES –
Taylor Nave
Jami Busch
Lauren Davis
Haley Huston
Morgan Finerty
Meg Tullos
Kristin Buckingham
Jackie Hassett
Haely Jardas
Amanda Cotto
Sophie Stein
Brittani Newland
Krissy Martin
Kailyn Mitchell
STENOGRAPHER – Olivia Rodriguez
PRISON GUARD – Tyler Bottema
CONVICTS –
Wil Harbison
Daniel Spikowski
Michael Bertino
Mike Nance
Willie Filkowski
Christian Steffens
Eli Baldwin
Osvaldo Vargas
Joey Whitesman
Tony Sansone
GIRL PRISONERS –
Brooke Cole
Allison Scott
Ashley Forrester
Rachel Freeze
Brianna Childress
Nicole Willis
Maicie Clark
Eden Shelton
McKenzee Stephens
Jordan Albright

Here are the members of the 2008-2009 edition of The A Cappella Group. I would like to thank all of you who tried out and I want you all to know that this is the most difficult and unpleasant thing I have to do all year. I have to take into account both your solo and your group audition, with the group audition having more weight. I also have to think about voice types and how different voices will fit together. I know that this doesn't make those of you who aren't on this list feel any better, but I just want you to know that I really do spend a lot of time going over and over this to make sure I make what I think are the best selections.

Without further ado, here are this year's members.

Soprano -

Megan Cook
Morgan Finerty
Taylor Griffith
Cassandra Lee
Brittani Newland
Alissa Roca


Alto -

Lacey Bourke
Lauren Davis
Kendra Dozier
Nicole Mayer
Taylor Nave
Eden Shelton


Tenor -

Ian Castro
Tony Sansone
Parker Slaybaugh
Osvaldo Vargas


Bass -

Joe Bell
Bobby Gibson
Karjan McGill
Alex Ravitz

The first Choir Bash is now history, but the memories live on in the photo section. Check out the pictures now.

Special thanks to the officers for organizing things and to Olivia for getting the pictures so quickly.

I hope you had a good time and I am looking forward to a great year with all of you.

The help tracks for The A Cappella Group audition material are now up in the music section. Scroll all the way to the bottom and open the folder title A Cappella Group Auditions. There is a track for each vocal part and a track that has all parts at an equal volume level.

Good luck everyone.

In an effort to reduce the SPAM that we are seeing in our guestbook, I have turned on the moderation option. If you post in the guestbook, it will now notify me and I will approve it. This will eliminate some of the rather inappropriate SPAM that has been showing up recently. Please make sure to put your name on all of your posts.

This year's musical is the Mel Brooks classic The Producers. We are looking for great singers, actors and dancers to pull off this massive undertaking. If you are interested in being a part of the Cypress Lake award winning musical team, here is what you need to do.

The auditions for the musical will take place during the second week of school. You will need to sign up for the day you would like to audition. The sign-up sheets are on the Black Box Info Board, just outside the side door. You will only need to audition on one day.

You need to prepare a song to sing at the audition. It should be from a musical and you must have a CD or iPod with an accompaniment track. You are also permitted to bring a live accompanist as well. The song should be no longer than one minute. Pick a song and a section of the song that will show off your voice.

If you would like to be considered for a leading role, you must also do a monologue during your audition. The monologue should be between 30 and 60 seconds long.

There will also be a dance portion to the audition. You will be taught a relatively short combination and then you will perform it in groups of three or four.

You should have appropriate clothes for the dance call. There will be time for you to change if you would like to wear a different outfit for the singing/monologue portion of the audition.

We hope that you will consider auditioning and being a part of The Producers. We won the innagural Lee County Musical Theatre Awards for best overall musical and we want to defend our title.

Today's post is for parents and students alike.

All members of the vocal department are required to attend one performance of another department at the Center each quarter. Performances and exhibits are available in theatre, dance, band, orchestra, and visual arts. In addition to attending the complete performance, students must then write a one page paper about the performance. The paper should be have synopsis of the event and half critique of the event.

This quarterly assignment is worth 10% of the chorus grade each quarter. The assignment serves two purposes - To promote awareness and appreciation of all of the departments at Cypress Lake Center for the Arts and to force students to write and think critically about events they have seen.

The complete list of performances will be printed in the new handbook. Please plan ahead and schedule the performance you would like to see each quarter in advance. You must see a different department's event each quarter.

There are always way too many students that choose not to do this project each quarter. I hope that all of you will make it a goal to complete these this year. If you have any questions, there are many more details in the handbook.

Today's feature will give you some guidelines as you get ready for this year's auditions for T.A.G.

The A Cappella Group is about to enter it's sixth year and has released two studio albums, appeared at Lincoln Center in New York City and have won numerous other awards. This is your opportunity to be a part of it all.

The auditions for The A Cappella Group will take place on Thursday, August 21 and Friday, August 22 in the choir room. You only need to attend one of the days. There will be two parts to the audition – solo singing and group singing. For the solo singing portion, you need to prepare a solo from a pop, rock, alternative style song that will show off your ability to sing lead. Please stay away from classical, musical theatre, folk songs, etc. Your solo should be no longer than 1 minute long and needs to be a cappella. For the group singing portion, you will perform an excerpt of a four part piece in groups of four with one person on a part. You can pick up the music for the group piece on the first day of school from Mr. Stroh.

In order to have a successful audition, you need to do the following in your audition.
1. Sing in tune!! This is the most important element. Your solo needs to start in one key and end in the same key without modulations taking place in the middle.
2. Be able to be secure on your part during the group singing. The majority of singing that you will do if you are in the group is part singing so you must be able to do it well and be independent while doing it.
3. Be expressive while singing. In order to perform this music successfully, you can’t stand like a robot and just sing. You need to use your face and entire body to be expressive and convey the meaning of the song.

I hope that you will consider being a part of The A Cappella Group and try-out during one of these two days. Pick a song that you sound great on and really make it your own. Make sure that you pick-up the music for the group singing portion on the first day of school, so you will have plenty of time to prepare. There were some great solo auditioners last year that did not sing well during the group portion. Take both parts of the audition seriously.

We would like to welcome all of our new members and are looking forward to getting to know all of you. As a new member to the vocal department, there are two requirements that you will need to purchase.

The first item is concert attire. For the ladies, we use a long black formal dress. All band, orchestra and choir ladies wear the same dress. We order these dresses through the school during early September so they arrive before the first concert. You will be measured and try on some sample sizes before they are ordered. The cost of the dress will be around $57.00. This is last year's cost. We have not received the new price list yet for this year's cost.

The second item that you will need is a choir folder. This is a high quality folder that has many features and is personalized with your name embossed on the front. With proper care, it will last the entire time you are at Cypress Lake. The cost for the folder is $25.00.

Both of these are one time expenses and both the dress and the folder can be used for your entire time in the vocal department.