SeDoMoCha Elementary musicians will soar at the May 9 spring concert

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — On Thursday, May 9, at 6 p.m. at Foxcroft Academy, students in kindergarten through grade 4 at the SeDoMoCha Elementary School will perform for their parents and the community at the annual spring concert.

Observer file photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    MAKING MUSIC TOGETHER — SeDoMoCha Elementary School students, under the direction of music teacher Kaitlin Young, lead the audience in song during last year’s spring concert at Foxcroft Academy. The 2013 spring concert will take place on Thursday, May 9 at 6 p.m. at Foxcroft Academy, with a theme of SOAR — sing out about respect.

    “The theme is SOAR, sing out about respect,” music teacher Kaitlin Young said in between rehearsals by Linda Johnston’s grade 3 class. Young explained at the start of the school year each homeroom took part in exercises to get the students thinking about appropriate behaviors in accordance with the ongoing SOAR (safe, organized, accountable and respectful) initiative which continues with the spring concert.
    Young said the students will be practicing for about five weeks leading up to the May 9 concert at the secondary school on West Main Street. “They have been real generous in letting us use their facilities again this year,” she said as the 2013 performance will be the second annual SeDoMoCha Elementary concert to take place in the Foxcroft Academy gymnasium. The gym includes a stage for the young singers to perform on, while the hundreds of spectators can view from both the floor and on bleacher seating.
    “Each grade will perform two songs on their own, and then everyone will sing two songs together,” Young said. She said the concert will include a debut performance of the SeDoMoCha school song, which was written several years prior with the help of children’s entertainer Rick Charette during a visit to SeDoMoCha Elementary.
    “We are singing and signing with sign language,” Young said, as the students will be showing both talents. She said the lyrics to the school song will be on the district website (www.sad68.org) and “parents will be asked to sing too, it is a group song celebrating our school and our community.”
    Sitting in a circle on a carpet decorated with musical notes, the 19 students in the third-grade class said the May 9 concert should go well and be “a lot of fun.” When asked, the students said they would not be nervous, because they have been practicing their songs and joked they have been singing in elementary concerts since they were in kindergarten. The third-graders also said they were looking forward to having their parents join in and sing with them in several weeks.
    “The third grade is going to perform ‘The Character Tango’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’ made popular by Elvis Presley,” Young said. For each song the students have movements to accompany the music, such as raising and lowering their arms and clapping in tune.