Inspired by the hit TV show “Glee,” a group of ASU students will be heading back to high school this semester to start a show choir.
GLEEders, a group of ASU mentors, will be advising three show choir groups of students from Corona Del Sol High School and middle school students from the Tempe area, said Amanda Nguyen, the founder of GLEEders and a junior at ASU.
The show choirs will perform popular songs featured on “Glee” with choreography, including songs like “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, a play, and “Rehab” by singer Rihanna, Nguyen said.
The high school women’s and mixed choir groups will start rehearsing at Corona Wednesday, and the mixed middle school choir will hold auditions on Friday, she said.
Each choir consists of about 30 people, and a team of about 15 ASU students sponsored by Barrett, the Honors College, will coach all three of them, Nguyen said.
Helping to direct a show choir last year at Pueblo Middle School, where Nguyen started singing in choir as an eighth grader, provided a background for her to found the mentorship program, she said.
Nguyen said she attributes the enthusiastic response from Barrett students interested in mentoring to the popularity of the TV show.
Mentors do not need musical experience to participate in the group, she said.
“It’s about reaching out to people from all levels,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said she hopes this mentorship program will develop committed leadership to make an ASU student show choir possible by fall 2011.
A show choir made up of ASU students wasn’t possible this semester because college student have difficulty making such a large time commitment, Nguyen said.
“Glee” inspired Nguyen, originally a biological chemistry major, to change her major to theater and business with a minor in dance and to start GLEEders this semester.
“‘Glee’ helped me realize [to] just go with your passion,” Nguyen said.
Mechanical engineering sophomore Genevieve Ticlo, the head of vocals for GLEEders, also thought the TV show was key to starting the mentorship group.
“‘Glee’ is the common factor that unites everyone,” Ticlo said.
She said she got involved in GLEEders after responding to an e-mail sent out from the honors college and attending meetings during the summer.
Ticlo applied for funding through the Barrett Honors College Council and the Student Organization Resource Center, and she is still awaiting approval.
She said she is confident that both organizations will approve the requests.
Nguyen said her group picked Corona Del Sol High School because of its strong choir program.
Greg Hebert, the choir director at Corona, said in an e-mail that 250 students are enrolled in the five choir classes offered at his school.
Hebert said he had not started a show choir before because it would limit the kind of music his choir could learn in class.
Regular choir allows student to learn a greater variety of genres and styles of singing in addition to learning proper technique, he said, while show choir incorporates choreography.
He also said he was thankful Nguyen had reached out to sponsor this program.
“[A show choir] allows them a different outlet to express themselves and build in their performing confidence,” Hebert said.
New mentors are still needed not only to accompany rehearsals on the piano but also to sing and dance with the high school and middle school students during rehearsals, she said.
The show choirs will perform Dec. 9 for their first show in the Arizona Ballroom at the Memorial Union, Nguyen said.
There will be two other performances at Corona on Dec. 10 and 11, she said.
Reach the reporter at mary.shinn@asu.edu
