Kimball Jr./Sr. High School hosts first annual Frontier Voices Festival Choir

KIMBALL -- Five schools in the Panhandle Region performed in the first annual Frontier Voices Festival Choir at Kimball Jr./Sr. High School last Friday. 

Three vocal directors – Jacob Hoffman in Kimball, Michaela Babic in Bridgeport and Stacey Sailors in Minatare – teamed up to organize the concert for their junior high students.  

“We just wanted our students to have more opportunities to sing with students from other schools,” Hoffman said. “We just wanted more involvement for our kids.” 

He added that the junior high students don’t have as many concerts and competitions as the high school students do, especially in the springtime. 

For instance, this year they had a performance in February and then wouldn’t have had another concert until May. 

“So that’s a three-month gap where they really don’t have anything to work towards,” Hoffman said. “Especially with young singers, they need a goal, and you need to be able to put that goal out in front of them. It gets very difficult for them to stay involved and invested in what you’re doing if they don’t.” 

They plan to host the concert every year moving forward. The schools who performed in this year’s concert were Kimball, Bridgeport, Minatare, Scottsbluff, and Gering. 

The concert was a success with the students and directors involved. 

“Overall, very positive perception, all the directors that worked with us were very happy that we were putting it on and were so thankful that they had something for their kids to come and be involved in,” Hoffman said. 

He said the students worked hard and performed very well. 

“From what I’ve gathered from our students, they were very excited all day,” Hoffman said. “Junior high students are usually a little rowdy; honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a junior high festival choir where they've been better behaved.” 

Hoffman, Babic and Sailors took turns directing songs so that the students could work with multiple directors. 

“It allowed us to give them more than one experience with different directors all at the same time,” Hoffman said.