Alma mater is preformed by choir program during homecoming events
Jacob Angelovski and Wilson Personett
October 12, 2017
Alumni and current choir members gathered on the track at the homecoming game to sing the Alma Mater. The Fenton Alma Mater is the official school song created to bring out school spirit through the choir while also including alumni.
“Typically a lot of students don’t know what the Alma Mater is,” choir director Brad Wright said. “One of the things that I was hoping was that we could start to teach people through singing it at the homecoming game that we do have an Alma Mater and what it is. I want my students to be able to sing the Alma Mater at the homecoming game because athletics are represented at the football game, the band is represented at the football game. It is a way to let the choir kids, all of them, not just the Ambassadors who sing the National Anthem, but all of the choir kids get involved and be invested in what’s going on at the homecoming game.”
This is the first time the alma mater has been sung at a homecoming game. Wright and students from each choir were asked to begin a new tradition by preforming it.
“I felt good; it was exciting and a little nerve racking but overall it was a really fun experience,” sophomore Maddy Diamond said. “I was nervous because it was our homecoming football game and it was in front of a lot of people, but it was exciting because not a lot of people get to hear the Alma Mater and it’s cool to be able to introduce it to them.”
The Alma Mater is not exactly the same today as the original version. For 20 years the choir program has sung this version that was arranged by Wright.
“When I got here 20 years ago, Tim Schmieder, who was on our maintenance staff, gave me a copy of the Alma Mater,” said Wright. “I tweaked it and I rearranged it for our choirs to sing. The words are the same and the melodies are the same, but I changed the harmonies.”
The Alma Mater is starting and ending the year. The next performance of the Alma Mater will be at graduation June 10.
