Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart received top-level honors at a WorldStrides Heritage Festival held April 11-13 in Nashville, Tennessee. Three musical ensembles from the all-girls college-preparatory high school in Lake Forest performed in front of nationally acclaimed adjudicators and learned from the feedback they received during this “Music City” event, which drew some 500 participants from across the country.  

Woodlands Academy’s two choral entries competed against nearly 20 other schools in Class 2A. The elite small-ensemble student-led Microscope choir brought home a Silver plaque while the Kaleidoscope choir, under the direction of Woodlands’ music coordinator Matthew Hickey, also won Silver.

The Woodlands Academy Symphony Orchestra, under Hickey’s direction, competed in Class 1A and returned home with a Bronze award.

In addition to these ensemble accolades, two Woodlands Academy students won prestigious individual honors at the WorldStrides Heritage competition. Senior Giuliana Popoff received the Ovation Award. Based on nominations from participating directors, this recognition goes to the one student at each festival whose contribution to his or her music program transcends the making of music and goes beyond the music classroom. Recipients typically have given of themselves on behalf of their family, music program, school and community.

Sophomore Madeleine Lillis’ piano accompaniment of the Kaleidoscope choir earned her a Maestro Award from festival adjudicators. Maestros recognize extraordinary musical ability and sensitivity demonstrated during the competition. Lillis’ award includes an invitation to participate in the upcoming WorldStrides Festival of Gold at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. 

Hickey is understandably very proud of his students’ achievements at this year’s “Music City” event. “Community music-making changes lives, and it happens in some of our simplest rehearsal moments,” he said. “But the recognition we received at the Nashville Heritage Festival affirms that the music that happens when we come together is of the highest quality. This year our students were recognized with some very special awards. Music truly has a special quality that turns a class into a family.”

And the “Music City” experience proved rewarding in other ways for Woodlands Academy’s participants. For example, Hickey said his students enjoyed dinner at Paula Deen’s Family Restaurant at Opry Mills before attending the live Friday night Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast.  Following their Saturday performances, Woodlands’ musicians went sight-seeing and souvenir shopping in downtown Nashville prior to the festival’s awards ceremony, which included dinner – and some line-dancing. Before returning home on Sunday, Woodlands Academy’s musicians visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and toured the famous Ryman Auditorium, also known as the “mother church of country music.”

This trip was the latest in a string of top-tier award-winning performances by Woodlands Academy vocalists and instrumentalists at competitive festivals held in different cities each year.

Music performed at the recent Nashville event – along with other selections – will be featured when the choirs and orchestra perform at 7 p.m. Friday, May 9, during Woodlands Academy’s annual Fine Arts Evening, which is open to the public free of charge. 

[Photo Caption: Sophomore Madeleine Lillis, left, won a Maestro Award while senior Giuliana Popoff received the Ovation Award.]