NEWS
March 10, 2009
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Music department to districts, states Features Editor Music is thriving at Northview. The Band, Orchestra and Choir programs are preparing and competing at district and state level competitions. The NV Orchestras competed first at the Ohio Music Education state competition on February 21 in Sandusky. The Chamber and Concert Orchestras played three songs each, directed by Mrs. Pamela Thiel, both receiving a rating of I for a superior performance. “We worked so hard,” said junior Alex Gibson. “Thus, I wasn’t too surprised, but I was still very happy.” The premier Chamber Orchestra, made up of juniors and seniors, played Short Overture by Jean Berger, Nessun Dorma by Giacomo Puccini and America’s Cup by Alan Lee Silva in Class A. Performing in Class C with William Tell Finale by Perry Hall, Brandenbury Concerto No. 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach and River Song by Keith Sharp was the Concert Orchestra. Next, the NV Choirs will be performing at the OMEA district competition at Archbold High School, in Archbold, Ohio on March 7. All the choirs will be performing three pieces each, with the A Capella choir, made up of juniors and seniors, splitting into both separate men’s and women’s choruses.
The combined A Capella Choir will perform in class AA, the most difficult level in terms of song choice and harshness of grading by district adjudicators, according to OMEA standards. “We’ve been working hard all year to perform in class AA,” said junior Emily Holshoe. “We’ve been putting in a lot of effort.” Verbum Caro Factum Est, a flowing madrigal piece composed by Hans Leo Hassler, is first in the group’s repertoire. The A Capella Choir will next perform Silent Noon, a very natural and emotional piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams and arranged by Paul E. Oakley, a renowned musician who has even worked with the choir’s own accompanist Mrs. Theresa Blowers. C.A. Pinto Fonseca’s piece, Muie Rendera, a lively Brazilian composition is the choir’s final song. For the women’s only performance, the group sang the classic Simple Gifts, the difficult Exite Sion Filiae and La Lluvia, or the rain. The men’s chorus will sing the joyous Jubilate, the well-known Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho and the melodic Dirait On. Next, the Symphonic choir will perform the thoughtful If Music Be Food, the traditional folk song Nelly Bly and the climactic Bashanah Haloa’ah in class B. Finally, the Northview Women’s Chorus, singing in class C are preparing
Megan Foster PLAYING IN THE BAND are junior Alexis Hall, senior Braden McCloskey and freshman James Donofrio. The band will be traveling to Disney World in April. I’m Going to Sing! by Ken Berg, the beautiful The River Sleeps Beneath the Sky by Mary Lightfoot and the happy Sing with Pleasure by George F. Handel. The NV Concert and Symphonic Bands will be competing in the regular district competition at Southview High School March 7. All bands prepared three pieces each. “In order to prepare for contest, we’ve been practicing every day on stage,” said sophomore Ted Garey. “We perfect our tempo and fix details to try and make all of our songs perfect.”
As of March 5, it was announced that the NV Wind Ensemble would no longer be attending contest. According to Mr. Eugene Bohland the Wind Ensemble will not be performing at contest because too many students had conflicts and could not attend. The NV and SV bands will be traveling to Orlando, Florida from April 4 to 8 to march in a Disney World parade. “It is going to be amazing,” said junior Jennifer Grimmer. “I am looking forward to marching in the big parade.”
PBS FRONTLINE explains fi nancial crisis Business Editor To help students understand the financial crisis America is going through, the AP American Government classes have been watching the recent FRONTLINE video Inside the Meltdown. The video, released February 17, barely penetrates the surface of the economic downfall, beginning with why the economy went bad and why the government did what they did to help, according to the FRONTLINE website. Like much of the press, Ellen Gray from the Philadelphia Daily News thought the video provided one of the
clearest explanations on bailout she has heard yet. According to the video, the trouble began in the spring of 2008 when the housing bubble burst and the mortgage industry began to fall. Bear Stearns, one of the largest global investment banks, was the first in the economic scare to see money dry up, eventually dragging down the rest of Wall Street. The public was falsely assured that all was well after Bear’s bailout, but the world was shaken as the Federal National Mortgage Association, Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Freddie Mac, began to show signs of potential failure. After another two bail outs to save these
two giants, the government decided to let Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm, fail in early September. But Lehman was very connected through Wall Street and soon the real crisis began as AIG, the world’s largest insurance company began to fail. Knowing that a failure would cause more problems the company was lent $85 million. A full-scale bail out was now required and a more direct involvement in the banking industry was necessary. On September 18, 2008, a meeting was held with the senior members of congress. At this meeting Hank Paulsen, the previous Secretary of the Treasury, was quoted as saying, “Unless you act, the financial system of this country and
the world will melt down in a matter of days.” As a further scare, Bernanke said, “If we don’t do this tomorrow, we won’t have an economy on Monday.” With these two statements, the video shows the public how extremely scary our economic condition was last year. Government students were left shocked after viewing the hour-long program. Seniors like Amanda Harlan were unaware of the severity of the economic crisis. “The show really proved how terrible America’s economic situation is,” said Harlan. The video Inside the Meltdown is the first in a series of videos to be released by the PBS organization, the next of which can be seen in March.
