LCPS All-County Chorus performance Saturday opens Arts in the Schools Month celebrations
A triple-decker tribute to Arts in the Schools Month kicks off Saturday when more than 200 students from Lenoir County Public Schools take the stage for the 2025 edition of the All-County Chorus.
The concert, bringing together the hand-picked representatives of 15 LCPS schools, is the first event in back-to-back-to-back celebrations of performing and visual arts, elements of the district’s encompassing approach to education that are highlighted during March. The LCPS All-County Band concert follows on Saturday, March 29, and the LCPS All-County Art Show opens its run on Wednesday, March 26.
All events are held at the Performing Arts Center on the campus of Kinston High School. The All-County Chorus performance begins at 1 p.m. Admission is free. The concert features separate performances by the elementary chorus and by the middle/high school chorus as well as selections by the combined chorus.
The students benefit not only from the experience gained by performing on stage before a large audience but also from working with visiting clinicians, music educators who are accomplished in their field and veterans of public school instruction. The clinicians conduct the choruses and spend a day ahead of the concert with the students, polishing their performance on the songs the students have spent weeks practicing in their individual schools.
“Teamwork is a big thing,” Southwood Elementary School music educator Laura Mewborn said. This year, her eighth contributing to the All-County Chorus, she’s sending 13 fifth graders to the performance.
“They learn to work together as a team, learning to hear the sounds of other people and trying to blend, learning to follow someone they don’t know. They’ll hear how it all comes together, with all the different parts and harmonies.”
It’s been a busy few weeks for Mewborn, preparing her chorus students while also getting first- and second-graders ready for the annual spring musical. (The curtain goes up on the musical “Hats” at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Southwood gymnasium.) Those productions serve as something of a training ground for Mewborn’s older students heading now to the county chorus.
“They all have been in Christmas and spring productions,” she said of this year’s crew.
A veteran of Southwood’s school musicals is Raegan Whitford, one of the fifth graders looking ahead to Saturday. “I’m looking forward to it because I’ve always loved singing,” Raegan said Tuesday after a brief rehearsal. “Singing is my passion and I want to be a famous singer when I grow up.”
She anticipates a life lesson from Saturday: “that you can follow your dreams and do whatever you put your mind to.”
The elementary chorus will be led this year by Jamie Cox, who is in her 21st year teaching music at Grantham Elementary School in Wayne County. Cox earned her music degree from the University of Mount Olive and her master of arts in teaching degree from East Carolina University. She was the Teacher of the Year for Wayne County Public Schools in 2022-2023 and has served as the choir director at Garris Chapel Church in La Grange since 2002.
Mona Rogers Knowles, whose career teaching chorus and band in four North Carolina public schools began in 1975, will lead the middle/high school chorus. Knowles earned her music education degree from Campbell University and her masters of music education degree from ECU. Her teaching career includes stints at South Lenoir High School and Woodington Middle School. She holds a 25-year service award from the North Carolina Music Educators Association, where she has served as a district president and elementary representative. Knowles is choir director at New Hope Baptist Church and director of the Neuse Community Chorus.
Both women are products of Lenoir County Public Schools.
Accompanists on Saturday will be Maria Ham, a church choir director and the music teacher at Northwest Elementary School, and William Sawyer, music specialist at Banks Elementary School who performs widely as an organist.
The All-County Band Concert, on March 29, begins at 2 p.m. The All-County Art Show, on March 26, opens at 5:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center.
Cutline:
Southwood Elementary fifth grader Raegan Whitford, center, practices with classmates ahead of their Saturday performance with the LCPS All-County Chorus.
Neuse News is a locally-owned small business startup in downtown Kinston. Our goal is to provide free, hyper-local news to Lenoir, Greene and Jones counties. The kind of news our grandparents read in a format fit for today's times.
We provide this by having supportive advertisers and we encourage you to click on their ads, shop with them, and eat with them. Every bit of financial support is important to help us sustain free, hyper-local news.
Please consider supporting Neuse News with as little as $5 one-time or via a monthly option. Every little bit helps us, help you.
