CLEVELAND — Typically, music superstars grace the stage of nationally-broadcasted events like the NFL Draft, and even though groups, like Kings of Leon, are scheduled to sing at the 2021 NFL Draft, draft attendees also were entertained by a choir of local students.
What You Need To Know
- The All-City Choir is made up of students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Seven students from the choir were selected to perform for the opening night of the NFL Draft
- The choir is performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Jayda Collins is a high school junior at Cleveland School of Arts.
“I sing alto in this song, but I’m going to switch to soprano music then,” she said. “So I get to do both which is really fun.”
She’s been preparing for “the moment” since she was a little girl.
“Since I was four is when they put me in choir at the church and then ever since then it kind of just took flight,” she said.
Collins and six other students will be performed at the opening night of the NFL Draft.
“I thought it was a dream. I’m going to be honest. When I was told that this was going to be for real I didn’t even tell my parents,” Collins said. “I was just like ‘whoa.’ I had to process it because this is so big like Grammy winners go and sing for this and we were chosen — somebody from Cleveland. Do you know, like, that’s just so amazing.”
As the performance drew nearer, the students practiced each note, and the song they sang is the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
“It has a hymn-like melody and I wanted to make it a little unique and different for this particular event,” said music director David M. Thomas.
Thomas has been directing the all-city choir for 14 years.
“So we took the melody and basically kept it the same and I added some special voicing for the background voices to make it more exciting and a little different,” he said.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, he could only choose seven students for the performance, but he hopes the national spotlight of the NFL Draft will open more doors and lead to other opportunities for the full choir.
“It’s huge for the city of Cleveland to actually have students perform on that national stage,” he said. “I’m really excited that they took time and gave us an opportunity to highlight students and Cleveland students.”
As for Collins, she simply couldn’t wait to get on stage.
“We’ve been working really hard and I hope everyone enjoys the performance.”
