Welcome to the Creekside Choirs Website!

Creekside Middle School, Zeeland, MI

This site will be a great place to find all information pertaining to performance dates, times and locations.

Check out Cody and Zach  (below) performing their original creation, Creekside Choirs Dot Com Rap

Summer Study Scholarship forms
​Students who fill out this online form will be eligible to receive scholarships toward attending a music camp like Blue Lake, or to help pay for private lessons.  The form is online and can be accessed by clicking here:  docs.google.com/forms/d/1I1UE4h7KnVlSaFctqNjLySD6pOmlmIDRhbWBXT7whRw/viewform?edit_requested=true

2018 - 2019 Performances

ZWHS Homecoming -
6th Grade Choir singing our National Anthem along with ZHS Varsity Voices - Friday, September 14 (this is an optional performance) - Meet at 5:15pm in the choir room at ZEHS.  Kids will be dismissed at 7pm, right at the start of the football game and are to be picked up at Zeeland Stadium.

Fall Concert (7th and 8th Grade Choirs only) - Thursday, October 11 - DeWitt Auditorium - 7:30 pm

Holiday Concert (all three choirs) - Tuesday, December 18 - DeWitt Auditorium (ZEHS) - 7:30 pm

6th Grade Friendship Concert (6th Grade Choir only, with Cityside 6th Grade Choir) - Tuesday, March 12 - 7:00 pm

7th Grade Friendship Concert (7th Grade Choir only, with Cityside 7th Grade Choir)- Thursday, March 14 - DeWitt Auditorium - 7:00 pm

​8th Grade Choir Extravaganza!  (8th Grade Choir Only) - We are bringing back this popular daytime event!  It gives the 8th grade choir a chance to hang out with high school choir members in the HS choir room and DeWitt Auditorium.  It will be an afternoon of sharing music and eating pizza! - Friday, March 15, during the school day (we will bus there and back). There is no performance with an audience for this but keep an eye on the Creekside Facebook page as we may go live a few times to share some music with you.
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Spring Concert (all three choirs) - Tuesday, June 4 - DeWitt Auditorium (ZEHS) - 7:00 pm (Theme TBA!)

Please remember that all performances (except the Homecoming opportunity) are mandatory.  Additional performances tend to pop up from time to time.  I will inform parents as soon as these opportunities arise.

Fundraiser

The current state of funding for public school education in Michigan remains poor, despite the revitalized upswing in the economy the state is enjoying.  We are still funded at basically the 2006 level.  Because of this, we must conduct a fundraiser each year to raise funds to purchase music, equipment and supplies to make the Creekside Choir program great.  

Opt out of fundraiser option...

A typical fundraiser operates somewhere in the ballpark of a 40/60 split between us and the fundraising company.  If we sell a pizza for $20, the choirs will see a profit of around $8 (sometimes, less).  

We encourage all choir members to participate in the fundraiser.  It can be fun and there are always prizes involved for achieving certain levels in sales (sometimes even $$$).

However, I realize that some families are more interested making a donation than having their child participate in the fundraiser.  This is both fine and completely understandable.  I'll leave the dollar amount up to you.  Please understand that opting out of the fundraiser will also opt your child out of any prize earning potential offered by the fundraising company, including potential pizza parties or after school celebrations.

Outfits

For performances, all choir members will wear black dress pants, black dress shoes and black socks.  


We will be ordering Creeskide Choir shirts (soon for 7th and 8th grades, later for 6th grade) with unique designs and colors for each group.  


Parents are responsible for providing the pants, shoes and socks.  Cost for the choir shirt is $12 (make checks payable to Creekside Middle School).

Mr. Costello had a busy summer!
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Mr. Costello was honored to be asked to present a seminar on "How to Stage a Choir Rock Concert" at the Association for Popular Music Education Conference in the Nashville area in June.  
     -One of my goals as a music educator is to change what college music majors are taught to include things like popular music as well as instruction on how to use microphones and sound systems.  This is not currently taught at all at the college level in 90% of Universities in this country

Mr. C also presented and taught breakout groups at the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework(tm) in the Cleveland area in July.  
     -This conference is the best conference in the WORLD for teachers of singing and I am so honored to be on the faculty.  I was also the sound engineer for the entire conference which was an additional honor for me this past summer. 

Last Summer....
It's been another exciting summer!  The 21st Annual Creekside Choir Spring Beatles Tribute Concert caught the attention of many, including Fox 17!  In addition, Mr C was the featured interviewer on the YouTube channel, SINGWISE!   Mr. C also had the honor of teaching and presenting at this summer's LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework(TM) at Baldwin Wallace University in the Cleveland area.  It was a fantastic voice conference over a nine day period attended by nearly 200 people from all around the world!  Creator of Somatic Voicework, Jeanie LoVetri said of our Beatles Concert, "you're changing the world with this stuff, Jeff."  That is incredibly high praise coming from one of the top voice teachers in the world!  I was also very humbled and honored to have been recognized at the conference by several complete strangers who said they love all the choir concert videos I post!  Creekside Choirs is a cutting edge school music experience and people from around the world are noticing!

Fox 17 feature on the Beatles Concert:
fox17online.com/2017/05/30/a-beatles-tribute-local-choir-rocking-out-with-live-band-for-finale-concert/

Mr C's interview on the SINGWISE YouTube channel:  youtu.be/qHpN6URf51E

Archive:  Below is the excitement generated in 2016:
It's been a very exciting summer, to say the least!  The 20th Annual Creekside Choir Spring Rock of Ages Concert caught the attention of many, including local TV station, FOX 17.  In addition, Mr. C. was a featured blogger for the Facebook group, Popular & Commercial Voice Teacher Network.  Here's the blog post:  http://www.commercialvoiceresources.com/blog/2016/7/10/creating-a-middle-school-choir-rock-concert-with-jeff-costello

Mr. C. was also the featured interview for the August Newsletter for Somatic Voicework(TM), a worldwide association of more than 1000 teachers of singing.  You can check out that interview here:  http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=7c9cb8ad5387f6acbbf4b84f6&id=c08ae0ec20

I hope most of you saw the coverage we received from FOX 17 news.  If not, here's a link to the spot:  http://fox17online.com/2016/06/13/zeeland-middle-schoolers-rocks-audience-with-rock-of-ages-show/

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