Editor’s note: This story corrects the number of choral students at North Allegheny Intermediate High School and North Allegheny Senior High School for the current year and removes references to the 2023-24 school year.
For TikTokers, the question usually is ‘what’s trending?’
At North Allegheny, it’s the choral department.
NA Intermediate High School Choral Director Bryan Sable and NA High School Choral Director David Schmiech created nasdsings last fall, a TikTok account that’s getting quite a following.
Or rather, followers — more than 60,000, Sable said.
“It took off like wildfire,” said Sable. “I was dumbfounded.’
And that’s not even considering the 1.9 million likes on the account.
The nasdsings TikTok account features songs, classroom activities, and performances from chorus classes at the intermediate and high schools. Sometimes, it shows students practicing for an upcoming concert — like the NAI/NASH spring concert March 30 at 7 p.m., at North Allegheny High School — or learning technical skills, or just having fun.
Sable and Schmiech are harnessing the power of social media to engage future middle school students who are interested, or could be interested, in the chorus program.
“The world of choral singing is very connected, and it makes us feel even tighter with these types of connections through social media,” said Sable, with more than 20 years of professional education experience, but his first year at the district.
The intermediate high school chorus and the senior high school chorus when combined have 250 singers. The NAI chorus has 125 students and the NASH chorus also has 125 students.
Schmiech said the choir directors are working hard but having fun.
“We have the best jobs in the district,” Schmiech said.
The choral department has general, chamber, concert, and treble choirs, Schmiech said.
On TikTok, the students are filmed performing and practicing all genres of music, whether it’s Broadway, pop, jazz, classical or others.
Students may sing popular favorites by Fleetwood Mac or Adele. During a Taylor Swift week, students sang a Swift song each day with the hopes she’d see it and respond. Swift hasn’t given any nods yet, but the videos did get 1.1 million views, Sable said.
A proud moment for Sable and Schmiech came when Grammy-winner, the American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre commented on a post in which the high school chamber choir sang his piece, “A boy and a girl.”
“The TikTok page has shown our students that composers aren’t just a name at the top of the page. They’re real people who love hearing their works performed. Several composers have commented or made duets on our videos of their work; most notably, Eric Whitacre, who is a highly influential and respected American choral composer and conductor,” Sable said.
American composer Ayrian Norman posted herself shedding a tear when she heard her first composition being sung by NAI’s treble chorus.
The NA choruses have thousands of comments to their posts, some coming as far as Nigeria, South America, Brazil and Argentina. Both the choral directors have had their students sing music from other countries.
The directors manage and monitor the account. They said that out of the thousands of comments they’ve received, there’s only been a handful of negative ones. Sable also considers this a teaching moment to his students about social media.
“It shows kids that social media can be a positive thing. It’s also important to be responsible,” Sable said.
National Association for Music Education has selected March as Music In Our Schools Month.
If someone doesn’t have TikTok, Sable said reels of the choir can also be found on Instagram and YouTube.
Schmiech and Sable hope their biggest fans are prospective chorus members.
Sable reminded the middle schoolers in a recent post, “If you can speak, you can sing.”
Natalie Beneviat is a Trib Total Media contributing writer.