Heart of America events showcase the end product of months of preparation. Pendleton Heights HS (IN) Choral Director Erin Archer shares the dedication and hard work it takes to make it to competition day.
The Pendleton Heights HS Show Choir program practices two times a week per varsity group from October through March. We compete seven weekends in a row and have a few community performances.
On the morning of a competition, we arrive at the school 30 minutes before we load the bus then we travel about an hour to our competition site. We arrive about two hours before we transit so the performers have time to relax, finish getting ready and get into the mindset to compete.
Ten minutes before transit, we all circle in our homeroom and talk about what we have to accomplish in the next hour. We walk silently to warm up and lock in for what is coming. Once we are in warm-up, we do a short stretch for the body and then do a vocal warm-up.
For the remainder of the warm-up time, we spot-check a few of the places we made changes to in the shows the last week and touch on any corrections given throughout the week to make sure everything is fresh in their minds. At the end of the warm-up, we circle again, and this time we speak about what we know we are capable of and remind everyone to go out on stage and give their best while having fun! We say a short prayer and then we have an untwisting ritual that involves everyone in the choir and band!
We walk quietly but excitedly to the stage, and when we arrive, we do our “take the stage cheer,” set the costumes, set up the band and the show begins!
A competition day can be stressful and there are a ton of moving pieces, but the entire time we operate like a family and move together as one! The groups are each other’s biggest cheerleaders and constantly go out of their way to build the other up.
Awards at the end of the day is my favorite part of the day because you get to see the students truly behave like a family. All the students, parents and staff sit together waiting to hear if the hard work the last week (and the last four months) has paid off. The amount of love, pride and pure joy that emits from all of us is stunning! I could not ask for a better community to be a part of than PHHS!
Erin Archer, Director, Pendleton Heights HS (IN)
Erin Archer serves as Choral Director at Pendleton Heights HS where she is the director of Pendletones, Emerald Suites, New Edition, Added Attraction and ACT. Under Archer’s direction, Pendletones and Emerald Suites were each named the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) Small School State Champions in 2022. Along with this, her groups are consistently awarded Gold rankings at ISSMA Organizational and earn the All-Music award. Before working at PHHS, she served as the choral director at Central Noble Jr/Sr HS for two years and at North Judson-San Pierre Jr/Sr HS for one year.
Erin holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education: choral and instrumental music, from Ball State University. She currently resides in Fishers, IN, and is married to her husband, Scott Archer, who is also a choral director. They have three beautiful girls; Chloeann, Elaina and Avery along with two dogs; Kali and Rory! Erin loves all things choir and is truly thankful for the opportunity to do what she loves with the fantastic bunch of students, parents, administration, community and staff at PHHS.
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