MSC Regional Choir Festival

MSC Regional Choir Festival

Music has been a central expression of faith in the lives of many Christians. Music found its way into the hearts of our schools early; these (Mennonite Schools Council) schools continue to express this love for music through strong music programs. Music festivals are not only an excellent educational opportunity for students through intensive music training but are also highlights of the year as they get to travel and interact with students from across the US and Canada. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these festivals have been canceled the last two years. This year, instead of around a dozen school choirs coming together to sing in Hesston, KS, Hillcrest Academy is hosting a much smaller regional festival with two midwest sister schools. Hillcrest Academy was honored to host an MSC Regional Choir Festival on April 1-2. Freeman Academy from Freeman, SD and Central Christian School from Kidron, OH traveled to Iowa on Friday, April 1. Once settled into their hotels, the two school choirs joined the Hillcrest Academy Touring Choir for dinner and various ‘mixer’ activities before starting to practice singing together. The next day, on Saturday, April 2 at 4:00 PM in Celebration Hall, students from the three schools performed songs with their individual choirs as well as select pieces as an 80 student joint choir. A recording of the concert (in two parts), along with the festival program, can be seen below.