What’s happening backstage at GA this fall and winter you might ask? Well, our amazing fall musical Once Upon A Mattress just stunned the community, and our annual dance show Winterfest is in the works! Once Upon A Mattress featured Roby Sickels/Henry Roth as Prince Dauntless and Julia Kahn as Princess… Fred?! You’ll also get to see Dance Captains Katherine Feiner, Madison, and Vas put on an incredible show at Winterfest. The Madrigals and Gospel Choir shined at the GA Arts Assembly and our rockin’ faculty band, The World’s Least Dangerous Band, hit the stage with songs from Coldplay and more.
Doing good and hearing good music at the same time is everyone’s dream come true, right? Well, that’s exactly what happened at Ingathering when fourth graders, the Madrigals, Bel Canto, and many more took to the risers.
GA kicking off the year with a large slate of performances is what brings our community together and puts smiles on students’ faces. None of these one-of-a-kind performances would work without our incredibly dedicated faculty over at the Performing Arts Center.
One of the most essential people involved in this undertaking is the one, the only Ms. McCants! She not only heads the Madrigals and Gospel Choir, but she also teaches Bel Canto and fifth-grade students and is the Musical Director for the theater department. A resumé like this definitely called for a deeper dive into her career here at GA. Here are some highlights from my interview with her.
This interview was edited for clarity.
So when did you first know that you wanted to pursue singing, and who inspired you and made you want to go into that?
So my dad was a music teacher, and there was music in the house since I was born, and so I was very much influenced by him. I just grew up and came out of the womb knowing I wanted to sing, so it’s always been there.
Okay, so you teach a lot of singing groups. You teach fifth grade, the Madrigals, Gospel Choir, and Bel Canto and you do the musicals. How is each singing group different and what’s fun about that and, like, the dynamics?
So what I love, especially in the upper school, is they are very different. With Bel Canto, I love getting to build those skills and teach them how to build those skills, both theory-wise, sight reading, vocal technique, and I love to watch the growth, and we’ve seen it already, how quickly that can happen. I love watching them grow through the year.
And then Madrigals I adore because we get to dig into some really challenging repertoire and to see their growth with some of this. We have a lot of difficult music for the holiday season, but there’s such a great feeling of accomplishment when you tackle a really tough piece and you get to sing it and you get to enjoy it. The hard work is done and now you get to really just enjoy it. So I love that.
As for Gospel Choir, I grew up in a black church and gospel music is very near and dear to me and I love the fact that I get to bring something different to this community. And then of course, with fifth grade, their young voices. And so just getting to see them start in middle school, and hopefully be able to still have that connection with them, so when I get to meet them again as freshmen, they still have that love of singing and music.
