It was well worth the drive on snowy and icy roads to hear the Upper Columbia Academy (UCA) Choral Clinic finale performance on Jan. 19 in Spangle, Wash. Students from around the Pacific Northwest joined the UCA choir to create a mass choir of beautiful voices.

Guest clinician Brenda Mohr took these students through a series of fun warmup exercises, and then they were off and running, learning then polishing six songs of various genres over the clinic’s two days.

Mohr arrived in the gymnasium Thursday before noon, just in time to witness an assembly for the Associated Student Body Spirit Week, during which kids in crazy hair and clashing clothes demonstrated their school and class spirit. Mohr commented that, in all her years of teaching in Adventist schools, she had never seen such great participation and school spirit. Some Spirit Week pictures are available on Upper Columbia Academy’s Facebook page.

UCA music department chairman and vocal director Curtis Anderson has directed the biennial choral clinics in the past, but he knew Mohr was in Washington getting her doctorate in music so he invited her to be the guest clinician. Anderson met Mohr many years ago when he was teaching in San Diego and Mohr and her husband, a band instructor, were teaching at Glendale Adventist Academy in California.

Most major events at Upper Columbia Academy are streamed live and then uploaded and archived on the UCA website. You may watch this program and many others at www.ucaa.org/live.

If you or any student you know might be interested in learning more about the music department at UCA or about attending UCA, please contact Shelley Bacon, UCA recruiter, at 509-245-6400 orby email.

Shelley Bacon

Upper Columbia Academy recruiter