It’s Performance Day! Whether you are a first-year teacher, 10-year veteran or a performing student, performance day brings with it a rush of emotions for everyone. Excitement, nerves, and expectations are high.
That is why for more than 20 years Director’s Choice has rolled out the red carpet for our Showcase of Music festival customers and students. We place your experience above all else when you perform at one of our festivals. I should know. As a choir student, I had the opportunity to travel on 12 Director’s Choice trips and attend nine Director’s Choice festivals.
Drawing from this experience and the one I have now as an employee, I am constantly trying to articulate what sets us apart from other companies. The answer I’ve come up with is this: from the moment you roll up to the venue, it’s all about you! To give you a look into how we accomplish this, I want to walk through the Director’s Choice festival process from the time you pull up to the performance venue to the moment you get your trophy.
Arrival
The staff who run our music festivals include both retired and current music educators coupled with students from a local music program. Because of their first-hand experience as music educators, they know what you need and expect from your festival experience. When you arrive at the festival venue, you are greeted at the bus and escorted by the site coordinator to the check-in.
Once you are checked in, greeters will show your group to the holding area to uncase instruments and change clothes if necessary. When everyone is ready to go, you will move to the warm-up room. In order to get the most out of your warm up, the room will be set up to your group’s chart specifications so you and your group can focus on getting in performance mode.
Performance Venue
Director’s Choice has the best venues in the business because we want your students to experience performing at a state of the art concert venue. Aesthetics are important – you and your students should be wowed when you step on stage. Additionally, we want you to sound your very best, so an evaluation of a venue’s acoustics is critical. During your performance, a cutting-edge archival recording is made.
To ensure your performance maintains its original warm, organic sound both live and on your recording, the acoustics must be balanced.
Adjudication
Your performance will be adjudicated by experienced, qualified educators. We have a stringent adjudicator selection process and training to be sure our judges give constructive but positive feedback to you and your students. After your performance, one of these adjudicators will come on stage and give a performance review. When the adjudicator finishes speaking with your students, you and your group will be
escorted off stage and helped back to the holding room to pack up and change out of their performance clothes.
Awards
At the conclusion of each performance, every group receives a trophy. The awards ceremony setting is dependent on the festival you attend. Our Scholastic Music Festival ceremonies run parallel to the festival itself because of the competitive, academic nature. Each group receives their premier awards at a private, mini-ceremony.
Our Showcase of Music is more than just a festival, it is an experience. True to this spirit, the Showcase ceremonies are high-energy celebrations in theme parks and help end the trip on a really high note.
You may not realize that Director’s Choice was started. Our owner (and my dad) developed Director’s Choice because he wanted more for his students than the festival options available to them at that time. That’s why the festival experience from the student perspective is so important to us and is foundational in the development of our performance products.
My Director’s Choice experiences gave me memories that will last a lifetime. I am grateful that my directors “Never Settled” and took me and my peers each year to a Director’s Choice festival.
