The Master’s University (TMU) Choral hosted its annual High School Choir Invitational at the University on Friday.

Dani Gallegos/KHTS News

The Chorale invited six high schools including Saugus, Castaic, Paramount High School, Desert Christian, Santa Clarita Christian and Trinity Classical Academy where they competed against one another and received feedback from Dr. Paul T. Plew, a longtime member of TMU music department faculty.

“Go home tonight and look in the mirror. Would you like to look at what you’re looking at in the mirror for 10 minutes? Remember, our face invites people into our space or tells them we don’t want them in our space.” advised Plew. “Everything that you do that is not like everyone else will draw attention to you.”

Plew led the music department from 1979 until his recent retirement in 2022, but he still leads the musical group in some of their performance tours, including the upcoming trips in Summer 2023 to Italy and Israel.

The varied choirs performed a small selection of pieces, ranging from acapella performances and arrangements by Mozart to excerpts from “Les Miserables.”

Plew offered encouragement and suggestions, emphasizing the idea that each choir should act as a single instrument made of many parts, not a gathering of a few dozen individuals.

“It’s not that a note is the most important note. Instead, that note makes the chord more beautiful, or it’s saying what the words are saying,” said Plew. “I believe in musical painting. Many times you can say a lot more with an  ‘ooh’ in setting a mood than just the words themselves.”

At the end of the competition, they had the opportunity to enjoy a performance by the University’s Chorale, directed by Dr. Plew.

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