Show Choir at Mill Creek Middle School

Mill Creek Middle added Show Choir as a class in 2020 led by Toni Travis, MCMS Choir Director, who has a B.M. in Music Education and Choral Studies from Liberty University. “The first time a perfect harmony tickled my brain, I knew I had to make choir a big part of my life,” said Tony. “When I started at Mill Creek in 2021, it didn’t take long for me to realize the students’ love of performing and knew competitive show choir would be a great fit for them.

I spent my first year at Mill Creek just teaching the students about show choir, showing them videos of other groups and putting together short show choir performances. I also spent this time establishing a relationship with our choreographer, Megan Castleberry, and theatre director, Aly Isom. We worked together to create a vision for what our inaugural competitive show would look like.”

The show choir is an auditioned group of 34 7th and 8th-grade students. They participated in two competitions this year: one local level and one national level. At the local-level show, they placed 2nd. At the national level, they placed 2nd runner-up. “I was really thrilled with the 2nd runner-up placement because we competed against some of the strongest programs in the country that have a decade or more experience than us. Here we are, a first-year group with some very talented and hardworking students, and to come home with a placement like that among some very strong programs was really special. Our students were so excited,” said Toni.

Tony states, “show choirs begin preparing their competition shows at the start of the school year. Our group began preparing our show in December. The growth they’ve demonstrated in this process and the musical aptitude they prove daily in class leaves me stunned quite often. We even started a successful show choir summer camp for elementary and middle school students and had 67 students attend last year. This year, we are adding a high school group. The students want to continue show choir into high school so they can continue honing this craft and art form.

I hope the growth of the show choir program at Mill Creek leads to the Nolensville High School choir program becoming a full-time position — with a show choir class, of course! Maybe even a pit band. We like to dream big.”