West High singers performed at the Nebraska Music Education Association conference on Nov. 21.
“It’s a very high performance group,” senior Balthazar Williamson said.
West High singers have been considered a very strong choir for a while, according to choir and West High singers director of 20 years, Adam Reimer.
“When I came to Bellevue, West High singers was already considered one of, if not the top choir in the state of Nebraska,” Reimer said.
The singers themselves are confident in their ability to perform.
“We know what we can do, we know that we’re pretty good at what we do,” Williamson said.
Being good at what you do isn’t something that happens immediately, though. It takes practice beyond just looking at the sheet music and figuring out what notes to sing.
“My expectation is that the students will learn their notes so that we can shape and make music out of it once they get there,” Reimer said. “Now, of course, realizing some students are going to go above and beyond and practice two hours every night, some students will do less than that, so it’s a happy medium,”
Especially when compared to years prior, the singers are having to practice more than they used to.
“He’s been saying a lot that we’re practicing a lot more, a lot harder than usual, because we have a lot more that we need to prepare during the semester than usual,” junior Jonah Glaves said.
They’re not just practicing to prepare for their concert for NMEA, as they also had a lot more on their plate because the choir was also in the Choral Collaborative at the same time: an event held with the Omaha Symphony and six other high schools.
“It’s a level of added stress, as Mr. Reimer found out this year, having both NMEA and the Choral Collaborative,” Williamson said.
Something that isn’t as stressful is the current state of the songs being performed.
“We’re singing eight songs,” Reimer said. “All eight songs are performable. Now none of them would embarrass me if we sang it, but none of them are quite special yet. So now we have three rehearsals to see how close to special we can get.”
It’s not just the songs that can be special though, as the reasons for singing are also special.
“You don’t do it for a trophy,” Reimer said. “You do it for yourself. You do it for one another. You do it for the shared experience.”
