The Selma Children’s Choir is preparing for its spring concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church by practicing and performing at Cedar Hill and Warren Manner.

The choir, now under the direction of Beth Watters and Michael Robinson, began in January of 2017 and now has six members from various schools across the county.

“I’m satisfied with the quality of students and their commitment to the choir,” said Jack Alvey, rector of St. Paul’s. “While we might only have six people in the choir, it’s a diverse group. That was one of the goals of the choir, to bring children from the different schools together. That’s a huge success in our eyes.”

The choir has children from School of Discovery, Meadowview Elementary, Valley Grande Elementary and Morgan Academy.

Alvey said the choir has been going well since its inception, and they are looking to build it and include both girls and boys.

“A lot of our goals are being met, but we would love to see it grow and include more people,” Alvey said. “We would like to see more students participate, but we recognize that Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes a lot of hard work and continued commitment to build the choir.”

Alvey said the students are ready for their performance and have put in a lot of hard work leading up to it.

“Their excitement is tempered a little bit with anxiety, but I think overall, they’re excited to share with people what they’ve learned and what they can do once they get over their butterflies,” Alvey said.

“The girls that we have are very talented, and it’s something they enjoy doing and you can see it on their faces when they’re singing. They just look joyful and happy and confident.”

Alvey said the choir is a way of building confidence in the students.

“It’s really cool to see how this kind of thing instills confidence in young people which is critical for social and academic development,” Alvey said.

“From my perspective, it’s really great to see the confidence through this process of practice and performance.”

The choir will perform at St. Paul’s April 29 at 3:30 p.m. The concert is set to last about 30 minutes and will include songs that are sacred and secular in nature. The choir plans to begin rehearsals again in the fall and all rising fourth through sixth graders are invited to join. Beginning Sunday, Aug. 19, the choir will meet Sundays at 4 p.m. at the church.  The cost to join for a semester includes a one-time $30 registration fee and $150 tuition fee. Scholarships are also available.

For more information, contact Watters at (334) 292-0936 or Robinson at (334) 297-2994.