Palatine Group Reaches Sing! Competition Semi-finals
Midnight Blues, a vocal jazz group from Palatine High School, is asking the Palatine community to help them advance to the next round of the Sing! competition by voting for the group online.
Midnight Blues, directed by Palatine High Choir Director Steve Sivak, performed live at Deer Park Town Center on Saturday, Sept. 24, singing “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” and “The Mystery” before an audience and judges.
“What a performance!” one of the judges commented after “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup.”
Sing! is a national vocal talent competition. Soloists and vocal groups started by completing an online entry form and uploading an original audio performance of a song. Based on online voting, groups and soloists were chosen to perform live at their local DDR Corp. shopping center. Then the pool was narrowed to three in each category by a panel of local judges and audience text voting.
Video recordings of the top three live performances from each shopping center have been posted online for a popular vote to decide the 11 finalists. To support Midnight Blues, go to http://deerparktowncenter.2011sing.com/sing-contest/4 to cast votes for them. Once you are registered, you can vote once per day per email address until Oct. 5.
After the 11 finalists are chosen, there will be one last online vote to decide the grand prize winner. The winning group will receive a $20,000 donation to the charity of their choice, $5,000 in DDR Corp. MasterCard Gift Cards and the once-in- a-lifetime opportunity to record a song with Emmy award-winning singer/songwriter Kevin Briody.
If they win, Midnight Blues has chosen two charitable groups in Palatine to benefit from their success. Sivak said half the money would go to the Palatine Family Crisis Fund, which helps families who lose their homes to a fire or other disaster. The other half of the money would be used to create a PHS Music Scholarship Fund to help music students reach their dreams.
Each year, about half of the students in Midnight Blues are new to the group, as seniors graduate and underclassmen successfully audition to join the group. With the competition only a few weeks after the beginning of school, Sivak said it was a challenge for the teens to learn and polish the songs for the competition.
“It created a goal for us; knowing we would have to be performance ready in a matter of only a few weeks,” Sivak said. “My hope is that it will also give the students focus, working on that common goal, as well as give them the ability to assess their work after preparing and performing so quickly. I'm hoping it will give them added focus for the remainder of the school year.”
Midnight Blues is a select choir at Palatine High School in Palatine, IL, lead by director Steve Sivak. Composed of sophomores, juniors and seniors, the group performs jazz and other music throughout the Chicago area. Many of its alumni have gone on to pursue music as both performers and educators after graduation.