In The News: NHS choirs flourish under Fletcher

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic

Small ensemble group wins state title and symphonic choir places program-best seventh in OSAA championships

After enduring a difficult transition between teachers two years ago, the Newberg High School choir program could have lost the momentum it gained last year when Robert Hawthorne left to lead the vocal department at Tigard High School.

Thanks in large part to efforts from Hawthorne and the returning students, however, the program is flourishing under first-year director Matthew Fletcher, who came to Newberg after three years at Nyssa High School.

One doesn’t have to look far for evidence of the smooth transition, as the 16-member VocalPoint choir won the small ensemble state championship April 29 at Pacific University.

A week later, the Newberg symphonic choir placed seventh at the OSAA Choir State Championships, notching the program’s highest ever state finish for the second year in a row after the Tigers took eighth under Hawthorne in 2015.

“It’s been as good as I can imagine any transition from one teacher to another being,” Fletcher said. “I owe a lot of that to Robert. He really put the choir in a positive direction and very gracefully encouraged them to be very positive and supportive and accepting. And they have been.”

Fletcher also praised the students for their role in making him feel welcome.

Choir president Luke Hartley said that Hawthorne left in a really healthy way, but that the students also put in a lot of time and effort into making the transition as effortless as possible for Fletcher, who turned out to be very relatable and easy to work with in his own right.

The program had been thrown into chaos following the exit of former director Jason Taylor, who resigned in May 2012 after being arrested in connection to a former student’s accusation that he gave alcohol to a minor.

Senior Taylor Mays said that created a toxic environment for Hawthorne’s first year in 2012-2013. This time, however, Mays said students had “a chance to be at peace” with Hawthorne’s departure.

“We heard the horror stories about how the students treated Hawthorne and we knew we didn’t want that at all,” Hartley added. “So we all just worked to make it an easy transition for him. There wasn’t much difficulty, either, because he was so easy to relate to and is just a nice guy.”

The students were also very much in sync with Fletcher’s approach to competition, which puts the focus on the performance.

“I’ve always felt the pursuit of excellence in music just for its own sake is a much higher motivation than any competition can ever be,” Fletcher said. “I never want them to sing to the judges. I want them to perform and be driven to be as good as they can be, which is higher than the motivation to be better than somebody else because you can win first place and walk away knowing it wasn’t your best.”

The choir was not able to stay in Forest Grove for the awards ceremony because many students had to return to perform in “Macbeth” that evening, but Fletcher said the payoff for the performance was definitely there before learning a few hours later that VocalPoint had won.

Hartley, for one, said he was very motivated to show well after finishing second last year.

“I was thrilled when I found out we got first,” Hartley said. “We always say that we don’t go to competitions for the score, but getting second place last year by a single point, I really wanted to place well and maintain that.”

Fletcher said VocalPoint demonstrated great depth and range by featuring six solos during their opening performance of the traditional spiritual piece “I’ve Got a Home in-a Dat Rock.”

The group stepped up the degree of difficulty its closing song, “Rytmus,” which Fletcher said is most often attempted by advanced college choirs.

“One of the judges even mentioned that their college choir was doing it,” Fletcher said. “It has a lot of tricky meter changes, which usually requires a conductor to keep track of, but they did it totally by themselves.”

Senior Alex Foufos noted that because VocalPoint did not win their own district tournament, the group had to wait to see if it would qualify for state, leaving it time to rehearse just twice ahead of the performance. They just happened to be two of the best rehearsals of the year, Foufos said.

Because VocalPoint does not perform with a director, they often look to themselves, the judges and the audience when in competition. That night, the group fed off energy from the crowd and won over the judges.

“We were the last group to perform and all three judges looked a wee bit grumpy,” Hartley said. “As soon as we finished the first 30 seconds of our first piece, they middle guy was just smiling and he seemed like the angriest of them all. By the end of the performance, they were beaming.”

The symphonic choir also impressed at its state competition a week later at George Fox’s Bauman Auditorium, singing five songs in four different languages that spanned from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Newberg then recorded the fifth-highest sight-reading score (49) in 6A.

“It was a really focused and emotionally intense performance and we did really well at sight-reading, which brought our scores up,” Fletcher said.

The community will now have the opportunity to witness the strength of the program, as all of its vocal groups will perform at its season-ending Cabaret concert at 7 p.m. May 24.

“We’ve done the hard stuff,” Fletcher said. “Now it’s time to have fun.”