The School Buzz: Colorado Springs charter school dominates choir competition, ranked best 3rd straight year
Josh Helmuth
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Students from The Vanguard School are hitting all the right notes — and bringing home some major honors in the process.
Both the charter school’s High School Choir and Chamber Choir competed at the Best of the West Competition in Grand Junction last month, and both groups earned the competition’s top rating — a Superior ranking.
That means, out of five possible scores from the judges, they received the highest possible marks.
But the celebration didn’t stop there.
After performances wrapped up, judges announced that Vanguard had also earned the Overall Best Choir Award in the 3A category, beating out choirs from across the two-day competition.
One judge even told the group:
“We have seen many choirs the last two days, but you were the first to give me goosebumps.”
This also marks the third straight year Vanguard choirs have earned Superior rankings.
Nikki Smith, the choir teacher at The Vanguard School, says the students work incredibly hard, coming in at 7:30 a.m. and showing up day in and day out.
Smith says the students are amazing and that the program continues to grow every year.
“Choir may seem easy, but there are so many technical things needed to put everything together. The students at The Vanguard School truly do exemplify excellence!” she said.
And the success keeps coming.
Smith emailed over the weekend to share that Vanguard’s junior high students also received a gold ranking at the Elitch Gardens Music Festival on Friday. It was the first time the group had ever competed and they earned a top score in their debut.
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