Middle School Choir Aims High in 'Glee' Contest

Royal Oak Middle School Choir Director Diane Mehringer is all smiles as she sings the '90s hit, “If I had a Million Dollars.” However, the educator/songstress would be just as happy with something to the tune of $50,000 — the amount her students could win in the Glee Give A Note contest.

Glee creator Ryan Murphy and the National Association for Music Education, of which Mehringer is the Michigan chairperson, have joined forces with the Give a Note Foundation to support and fund music programs in public schools. The Glee Give A Note contest will award three $50,000 grand prizes, 10 first prizes worth $25,000 and 60 second prizes worth $10,000 to students who perform or re-create their most memorable Glee moment on video.

ROMS Choir Gets Into Video Contest

"We’re going to get into this contest,” Mehringer said. “The kids right now are working on ideas and proposals. They want to come up with something that shows how much the kids love the arts in Royal Oak.”

Video entries can be no more than two minutes long and explain why your school's music program deserves to win. “We need to get as many things crammed into this two minute video as we can,” Mehringer said. 

“The kids told me they didn’t want to say things like ‘Oh, we don’t have this’ or ‘We’re going to lose that’. The want to keep the message positive, not pitiful."

Mehringer said she looked through her music and found a few arrangements of favorite songs performed on Glee, such as Journey's “Don’t Stop Believing” and Queen’s “Somebody to Love.”

“The show is not really geared toward middle school students,” she said. “So only some of our kids watch it. There are parts of the show that work really well, and parts that are beyond us, so I will work very carefully to choose the music.”

The video must be filmed in a certain format and there is a lot of paperwork involved, but Mehringer said that when it comes to location (it’s always about location, location, location) Royal Oak Middle School has an advantage. “We’re lucky because our building is so beautiful, so we figured we would set it up around our school,” she said.

Once all the videos are submitted they will be posted on the Glee Give A Note website, which is www.gleegiveanote.com, and people will be able to vote for their favorite schools.

Music is Popular in Royal Oak

While school officials continue to struggle with increased costs and declining revenues that could affect the arts in the Royal Oak school district, the vocal music program shows no signs of disparity.

“We continue to have more students in the choir than we have music or chairs,” Mehringer said. "The high school has the same problem. They have students on a waiting list."

Mehringer said she has 110 students in the eighth grade choir and 13 students in the State Honors Choir.

'Glee' Video Submissions Due Oct. 10

Royal Oak Patch will keep residents updated on Royal Oak Middle School’s video progress and voting information. For more information visit www.gleegiveavote.com.

ROMS Concert Choir Events

Nov. 29: All City Vocal Music Concert at Royal Oak High School

Jan. 24: Grades 6-7-8 Choirs Concert at Royal Oak Middle School

June 7: Grades 6-7-8 Choirs Concert at Royal Oak Middle School