Fantastic Friendship Festival!

We had yet another fantastic Friendship Festival, featuring choruses from Hope Hill, Morningside, Mary Lin, SPARK, and VHE, plus Centennial Place Academy, Howard MS, and Midtown High School.

We are incredibly lucky that Midtown Cluster teachers understand the importance and the necessity of singing, and singing well! I'm so grateful that we have Mr. Jay Sessoms and Mr. Kevin Hill who keep our singers singing and growing all the way through middle school and high school!

We Are Going to Be Friends by The White Stripes

conducted by Brianne Turgeon (SPARK)

Tonight You Belong to Me

conducted by Melanie Relyea (MES)

Rhythm of the Rain

conducted by Maggie Sherwood (VHE)

Thank You for Being a Friend by Andrew Gold

conducted by Kevin Hill (Midtown HS)

STEAM Night Fun!

 AC had another performance on Thursday, Sept 17 for our SPARK Wonder STEAM Night. We connected songs to 4th grade Weather, math, and space standards thematically.

The setlist:

Mr. Sun → You Are My Sunshine Walking Home + I Don’t Care if the Rain Comes Down + Rocky Mountain Rhythm of the Rain Counting Stars Stand R.E.M. Oye

Thank you Ji-Young Lee for the videos! 

Performing for VaHi!

 Gig #1 is in the Books!

Our Advanced Chorus had their very first performance on September 1, performing for the Virginia Highland Civic Association's annual meeting AND we got to see our friends from our sister school Virginia Highland Elementary! Go Owls! Go Dragons!

Below is a playlist of our selections (not in performance order):

Oye by Jim Papoulis

Counting Stars by One Republic (sing along)

SPARK Song

VHE sang 

The VHE School Song

Sunflowers

VHE had a great turnout for their huge Chorus!

This was the first Chorus performance for many of our singers!

Happy New Year! SY 2026-2027 AC Starts Friday!

AC Begins Friday, August 7! 

Actual footage of kids clamoring to sign up for AC

Sign up here for

Advanced Chorus 

Rehearsals begin Friday, August 7, 2026 

(singers can join later, too)

Rehearsal is on Fridays from dismissal until 4:30pm

Be sure to let your child’s HR teacher know your singer will stay after school on Fridays  Ms. Turgeon will call for AC members to come to the Gym at dismissal  We’ll rehearse in the Music room and sometimes in the Gym AC members will sing, dance, play instruments, create, and more! After rehearsal Singers will be released to the Briarcliff entrance Exemplary behavior is expected — interruptions of rehearsal won’t be tolerated Absences must be communicated to Ms. Turgeon, please. No audition necessary!

Studying Music: Tips and Benefits:

Here's a great article about how to help your child build great study (and practice!) habits. Article from Yamaha.com Studying music includes singing, dance, and instrumental music!

5th Grade Awards 2026

If you have trouble opening the slideshow above, you can see it HERE

And check out the rest of this blog to see other Music@SPARK content!

Se Habla Español Music@SPARK concerts May2026

If you can't open the slidesho below:

Se Habla Español program & videos

Happy Retirement, Nurse Carr!

upload items here

The best to ever do it. I have worked with Nurse Kimberly Carr for pretty much as long as @springdaleparkatl has been open (est. 2009). She is the most caring, thoughtful, funny, lively, loving person in our building, and that takes some doing! You will never walk past her without a hug, being told you are loved, her saying something fun or funny or kind. But also, Nurse Carr don't play. She is delight personified.

Her timer went off, and she is going to take her boundless energy to the other parts of her life. 

We just have a couple weeks to let her know how much she has impacted our entire community. 

Spread the word! 

You can send cards and gifts to the school, and/or I am collecting a folder of photos, videos, and letters to share with her. 

SPARKFan26 & Inman Park Festival Parade 2026

SPARK Fine Arts Night!

View the performances here SPARKFan26 slides or below:

 

SPARKFan26 Live Slides 

Inman Park Festival Parade

The rain didn't dampen our spirits, not one tiny bit. Check out the fun!

Midtown HS Marching Knights Rolling in the Deep

#MIOSM Ridibund Chamber Music Society

 

Set List (not all pieces are in the video)

Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

The Philip Glass version of Sweet Caroline

Back in Black by ACDC

Beethoven 9-->Kashmir-->Bacchanale

Running Up that Hill by Kate Bush

Golden Waltz

Golden from KPop Demon Hunters

La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf --> Pink Pony Club by Chappel Roan

Gladiators and Hawks ticket links!

Gladiators and Hawks flyer link

Black History Month Program and LGPE!

Did you know?

Our AC LGPE team worked hard and earned 

an Excellent in Repertoire and a Superior for Sight Singing!

Thank you to Ji-Young Lee for filming!

Circle Round the Moon by Mark Heirholzer

Kalanta of the New Year by Malcolm Dalglish

Voices of Therrell with Renise Allen

Washington High School

Practicing great audience behavior!

Working on that sight-singing!

Our AC singers did some great work learning different types of harmony for "Circle Round the Moon" and "Kalanta of the New Year" has 3-parts at the end PLUS Greek text!  

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Chandler the Cello

Rehearsing with Ms. Wesley

 SPARK Black History Month Program!