Group to be part of benefit concert at 7 p.m. Thursday in school gym

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

Amy Merwin’s choir room at TRAILS Outdoor School filled with the uplifted voices of middle school students from around Ashland on Tuesday afternoon.

The choir, made up of about 25 students from Ashland Middle School, Ashland Connect, Willow Wind Learning Center, and TRAILS, was rehearsing for their upcoming benefit concert at Ashland Middle School this Thursday. The group restarted Sept. 12 after a more than two-decade hiatus. (The initials in TRAILS, the former John Muir Magnet School, stand for trust, respect, awareness, interdependency, leadership and stewardship.)

“The last time it was part of the school day, it was 1989 (at Ashland Middle School),” Merwin said in an interview in mid-November. “It got cut from the school day during 1989.”

Soon after that, individuals tried to revive it as an after-school program, but that program stopped in 2002, she said.

Merwin, who teaches the choir group, helped get the choir going again, with help from Rebecca Dyson, school board chair, who met with Ashland School District Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove about restarting the group.

“I got to Ashland in 2016 and, ever since I’ve been here, I’ve been trying to get it started,” Merwin said.

Merwin hopes the choir can be a “feeder” program for Ashland High School’s choir. She noted that the lack of a program had made it harder for students to participate coming into high school.

“I think starting it back up again is definitely going to help the high school,” Merwin said.

Merwin also teaches third- through fifth-graders choir at Helman Elementary School, so it’s safe to say it’s a passion.

Now she can tell her fifth-grade choir students they will have a place to sing as a group in middle school.

“If we can keep this going, there’s continuity for the students,” Merwin said. “Their voices change, you’ve got to sing through that … their interests change and (if) they lose that big gap (of time), they lose a lot.”

Merwin would like to see the class return as part of a school day eventually.

“This is like the first step to get it at least back …  after school,” she said. 

A group of girls in the class gathered around the piano following the class, tickling the ivory keys, and sharing their love for singing.

“You can just, like, be yourself and not hold back,” one said.

“I just love singing in general … expressing myself through music,” said Maggie Brake, a sixth-grader at Ashland Middle School.

Merwin teaches vocal technique and notes, so students can go into high school prepared for competition.

But she also makes it fun. On Tuesday, Merwin told students she didn’t bring doughnuts this time, but she had stickers to go around.

The group accepts new middle school participants in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Merwin is also looking for a volunteer accompanist and volunteer vocal coaches.

They meet at 3:15 p.m. each Tuesday afternoon for about one hour.

“We hope to continue it,” Merwin said, of the choir. “This is free – It’s inclusive, it’s for everyone.”

She hopes to form a choir for sixth graders and one for seventh- and eighth-graders in the future.

“I hope to do that someday,” she said. 

The choir held a concert in late October and will hold a “Minka’s Sleigh Ride Benefit Concert” for Ukrainian refugees at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, in the gym at Ashland Middle School, 100 Walker Ave. Merwin said that the concert, which will also include Ashland Middle School’s band, is a benefit for Ukraine.

Students from the middle school choir will sing “Hej Sokoly” in Ukrainian, among other songs at the concert.

Reach Ashland.news staff reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].