Tune in to the Detroit Public Television Thursday night and you just might catch a glimpse of some very talented Birmingham-area singers.
The Groves High School Evergreen Singers will be performing as part of DPTV's "Detroit Performs: Tim Janis' Celebrate America," a pre-recorded concert featuring hundreds of Metro Detroit student singers airing from 9-11 p.m. Thursday.
As part of the performance, students from Metro Detroit high schools, middle schools and elementary schools came together in October to perform "songs that have uplifted and inspired the nation in times of war and times of peace."
The group was led by Tim Janis, a composer who's produced four music specials for National Public Television and has worked with artists like Paul McCartney and Billy Joel.
According to the Detroit Performs website, the special will also include historic and patriotic archival images and videos, creating a "moving musical story that celebrates the people and the nation."
"(The program) is designed to give our youth the opportunity to showcase their choirs," Janis said. "The talent our teachers and students have is extraordinary. The project was and is a team effort with DPTV. I am thrilled at the incredible talent, hard work and dedication each choir and its teachers brought to the songs."
This isn't the first time Groves singers have been in the DPTV spotlight. Singers from the Birmingham high school performed during the 2012 'Celebrate America' concert, as well as in 2011 and 2010.
Other Metro Detroit school participating in the concert are:
- Avondale Middle School
- Avondale High School
- Carter/Johnson Upper Elementary Schools
- Community Chorus of Detroit
- Detroit Children's Choir
- Detroit School of the Arts
- Emerson Middle School
- Garden City High School
- Lakeview High School
- L'Anse Creuse High School
- L'Anse Creuse North High School
- Livonia Franklin High School
- Livonia Stevenson
- Oakland Homeschool Music
- Redford Union High School
- Royal Oak High School
- Southfield Lathrup High School
Tim Thomas
8:13 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
I am extremely proud of the young men and women of the Groves High School Evergreen Singers for their performance on "Celebrate America" last night. As statistics from the 2012 SAT exam show, students involved in choirs and other music ensembles score 35-70 points higher on both verbal and math sections of the exam than students who are not enrolled in music performance classes. The students of the Evergreen Singers consistently display the intellectual curiosity, collaborative work ethic, and creative problem-solving skills that are essential for our next generation of workers.
Tim Thomas - Choir Director
Birmingham-Groves High School
www.GrovesChoirs.org
Laura Houser
8:44 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
Thanks for the comment Tim and you're right: the Evergreen Singers deserve all the recognition they can get! Congrats!