Results are in! Blair makes strong showing at competition
This past weekend, the voice department from the Blair school of music competed in the “Mid-South Regional” NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) competition at the host, Lee University in Cleveland, TN. While Blair has a very good reputation in terms of talents in the realm of competitive singing, I had no idea how the new freshmen would fare having no experience against other collegiate singers. The results BLEW ME AWAY!
In NATS competitions, there are generally a few rounds that a singer must advance through in order to be crowned winner of his or her category. We had nearly all (24) of our 27 participants make it to the 2nd, semi-final round. To advance to the semi-finals, one must achieve an average score of 90/100 from their three judges. I can proudly say I was one of those semi-finalists. In order to advance to the final round, one must be ranked in the top three singers after the semi-final round. I can proudly say I was one of those top three.
The final round is normally a formal recital, in which the top contestants from each division perform for an audience and the panel of judges that decide what place they should get. Not only do you have the pressure of trying to impress the judges, but also hundreds of audience members. As I looked at the contestant numbers of the results sheet (our numbers, not names were posted on public results sheet), curious about who else made the finals in my division, an odd feeling of familiarity struck me – I had seen those numbers before… they were two numbers of freshman men singers from Blair. They were two guys that study under the same voice teacher that I do! Vanderbilt had swept the category. It was quite the relief to know that the only guys I was going to be competing against in the finals were comrades from my own voice studio. As a general note, it’s also great to know that our vocal competition is really within our own school. When we go to a competition and so many of our singers end up placing in the finals, it’s pretty indicative that our school is turning out some very competitive talent.
To summarize the weekend’s successes, the freshmen men swept our category, taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, sophomore women took 1st and 2nd, in senior men we had a 2nd place finish and our senior women took both 1st and 2nd. We were the winningest school of the weekend, as we had the highest number of students to place, beating many schools such as: Belmont University, University of Tennessee – Knoxville, UT Chattanooga, Lee University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Kentucky and many more. In addition to all the great feedback we received, these kinds of competitions are great to get a feel as to where your school stands in the vast pool of collegiate vocal talent.