Weymouth Student Participates in All-State Music Festival

Christina Whalen ’16 of Weymouth is a senior at Fontbonne Academy and is patiently waiting to hear from colleges and universities. As a star soprano in Fontbonne’s Select Chorus and Jazz Choir, Chrissy is interested in pursuing music education and has begun auditioning at New England area colleges. 

This winter Chrissy performed in the Eastern Districts Music Festival. She auditioned to perform back in November when she, along with many other students, gathered at Milton High School.  She was asked to sing Psalm 180 from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, from The Messiah.  “It was challenging,” said Chrissy, “because you had to sight read (that is sing the tune without practicing it first).”

This March she will participate in the All-State Music Festival which culminates with a performance at Boston Symphony Hall on Saturday, March 2.  “It was so much fun last year,” said Chrissy, “I can’t wait for this year’s event.  It is a weekend-long music festival at the Seaport Hotel in Boston and musicians come together from many towns throughout the state and practice for our final performance.  I met some really great people last year that I still keep in touch with through Facebook.  Many of us will be there again this year.”

At Fontbonne Academy Chrissy is a busy girl, and she claims to have spent more time in the auditorium performing and practicing than in the school building.  She is a member of the Select Chorus and Jazz Choirs, and has been in every play since coming to the school (and is the narrator in the March production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”).  She is a member of National Honor Society and the Spirit Committee.   She is an Ambassador, a Peer Educator, and Peer Minister.  Last summer she taught music and dance at Sacred Heart Parish’s Vacation Bible School and loved it.

For her capstone senior social justice project, Chrissy is focusing on music education. She volunteered at Fontbonne’s Summer Theatre Camp in 2012 and hopes to do so again this year.  “I am really excited to study music education.  At the All-State Festival last year, the conductor, Dr. Paul Head, from the University of Delaware was so inspiring.  He got the entire group so engaged and excited about performing.  I would love to be as inspiring to others as he was to me.”

Chrissy’s musical career at Fontbonne began when she arrived there and spans her entire high school career.  “I feel like my music has grown as I’ve grown, through all the plays and performances.  It has really grown along with me.”

-Fontbonne Academy