This winter, the Royal Rhapsody achieved many victories during their competition season, earning the coveted title of Grand Champions at their competitions at Decatur Central, Plainfield, Center Grove, and Franklin Central.
In addition to being Grand Champions, one accomplishment the team had this season was making it to finals at Pike MusicFest for the first time, placing third runner up in the large mixed division. This moment stood out to sophomore Will Stonecipher, who is in his second year of Royal Rhapsody
“I think our biggest achievement is making large mixed finals at Pike. We knew it would be hard to make that competition,” Stonecipher said.
To have this success at competitions, the group had to spend many hours rehearsing. Since December, they practiced twice a week in addition to class time. During the practices that occurred between competitions, they went over notes from their director Mrs. Shannan Masten and judges from their previous competitions.
According to Masten, the Royal Rhapsody has greatly improved from the start to end of their competition season because they were able to apply the criticism from the judges and incorporate it into their next competitions, even if they did not have much time between competitions to do so.
“A big part of their comp season is taking constructive criticism from the judges and taking it week by week or hour by hour. They’re very resilient,” Masten said.
While competition season is an exciting time for Royal Rhapsody, it can also be challenging. Patrisha Luzietti, a senior in her second year on Royal Rhapsody, has found it difficult to learn to sing and dance simultaneously for the entirety of the show.
“I would say that the most challenging part of show choir is building up stamina to sing and dance at the same time for as long as we can,” Luzietti said.
Stonecipher agrees that running through the show can be tiring, especially at the beginning of the season.
“The first time you just run through [the show], you have nothing left by the fourth number, but you just have to power through it,” Stonecipher said.
Although show choir requires a lot of stamina, which can be a challenge to develop, the students find the connections they have made through show choir rewarding.
“I think just being with the people that also do what you love [is the best aspect of show choir],” Stonecipher said.
Masten has also noticed how much the students have bonded throughout the show choir season, particularly during the many hours they spend together during their competitions.
“They work so hard as a group and spend so much time together at practices and competitions, so by the end of the season, they’re like siblings,” Masten said.
On February 23rd, the Royal Rhapsody’s competition season ended with success. at Franklin Central’s Hoosier Show Choir Classic, the Royal Rhapsody earned the title of Grand Champions, ranking number one in small mixed show choirs in the state.
While Masten is happy that the hard work of the choir paid off, she is also sad about how quickly the competition season ends.
“[The last competition] could not have gone better, but the season ending is bittersweet because all of our hard work from July to February is over in a span of four weeks,” Masten said.
As a senior in her last year of show choir, Luzietti also feels bittersweet about the ending of the competition season.
“I was sad that it was my last time competing with this group of people, but I was also really happy because we won. We had a really good season and ended it on a great note,” Luzietti said.
