Meistersinger Schule
Volksschule Smart City Choir
Our primary school Smart City Choir consists of over 60 enthusiastic singers from 2nd to 4th grade. As a proud Meistersinger school, we were awarded the prestigious Meistersinger Prize in 2023, 2024 and 2025. A special highlight was our participation in the Landesjugendsingen 2023 in Bruck an der Mur.
The choir impresses with a versatile repertoire that includes songs in various languages – including German, English, Spanish, Swahili and many more. Every year, the choir organizes two to three major concerts and also performs at numerous events in the Styrian community.
The choir is conducted by Ms. Jacquelyn Hafellner, who completed her training in music education with a focus on choir and band training in the USA. Choir lessons are held in English, thus promoting not only the musical but also the linguistic development of the children.
The Elementary School Smart City Choir stands for musical diversity, community and a great passion for singing!
Wow! What an evening it was.
The Aula was packed full with smiling, excited faces and the energy from the crowd was felt throughout the entire room. The 80 students waited impatiently, excited to share their hard work and joy with the audience waiting below. As we ascended the stairs, the audience broke into applause and the 2nd-4th graders beamed with pride. We opened with our school song, written by former VSC teacher, Andreas Gross with English text by Jacki Hafellner. Ezinwanne (4th Grade) and Elina (4th Grade) introduced our second song called “I Sing Because I’m Happy.” Gospel music has been a major inspiration for much of the music we have today. This song stems from a 19th century hymn called “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” It was truly made famous by Lauryn Hill and then again by Whitney Houston. This song was adapted by Rollo Dilworth for 2-part choir. The choir students began working on this fun gospel piece only two weeks ago. The song has tricky rhythms, but the text is repetitive and catchy. The audience clapped along with our students as they truly happily sang this piece.
The concert continued with featured soloists. Nineteen students auditioned for featured solo roles and seven students were selected for last night’s performance. Robert Forsyth (3rd Grade) played “Dance of the Little Swans” by P.I. Tchaikovsky on the piano. He was followed by Vanessa Bernhard (4th grade) who performed “Rumpel” by Felix Janosa also on the piano. Emmanuel Petek-Viesca (2nd Grade_ performed a cello solo titled “Scherzo” by C. Webster.
After our soloists,4th graders Pradyumna and Selina introduced “Siyahamba.” Siyahamba is a South African folk song in the Zulu language meaning „We are Marching.“ It was not intended to be a protest song, but it later turned into an anti-apartheid protest song and is still linked to the movement today. They invited our choir alumni in the audience to join us for this song as it has been a tradition in the VSC choir to learn and perform this song each year since 2022. Praise, Anila, and Emma (2024,) Amina, Nnenna, Sophia, Ayla, and Meharyjot (2025) joined us for this song. It features 2-part harmony plus movement.
The next group of student solos began with Xenia Tverdokhlib (3rd Grade) performing Ecossaise in G Major by Ludwig van Beethoven on the piano. She was followed by Laura Veronesi (2nd Grade) playing Jimba composer unknown on the soprano recorder. The next piece was called Abenteuer composed by Daniel Hellbach performed by Ida Liesche (4th Grade) on the piano. Our final performance was by Clara Westermeier Pasqualin. She sang “Naughty” from Matilda the musical by Tim Minchin.
The final two songs of the show were the audience favorites! The first song was called Red Bird. Third graders Jorawarjit and Malou explained that Red Bird is a 2-part song for young voices. It tells the story of a Cardinal in the winter time and how the song of the Cardinal bird shines above the winter scenery. The Tuesday choir students are singing the main melody and the Friday choir is singing the lower harmony. This song features multiple Orff instruments playing an octavo. The students of the 4F class will be accompanying us at the next school assembly on February 11th.
Before the last and final song, Mrs. Hafellner thanked Mrs. Schulte-Andrianakis, Mr. Lukas Miklin, the custodial crew-Baschir, Thomas and Florian, the teachers for their support and also the students for all of their hard work and for bringing a lot of musical joy to our school community. Mila (4th Grade) and Manuela (3rd Grade) introduced Chocolate! Our final song to the audience. They said “Kirby Shaw wrote this song in 1989 for an Elementary school chorus in the USA. We have had a blast learning this song and singing about our obsession with chocolate! Mrs. Hafellner brought some of the chocolate featured in this song from the US for us to try! We tasted Hershey’s Kisses, Junior Mints and Baby Ruths. You’ll hear other cheeky references to different types of chocolates and desserts that make us “go loco over coco!””
Chocolate! Is a bluesy-jazz song that features choreography that Mrs. Hafellner first created in 2010 for her then 7th grade choir in Georgetown, Ohio. The song became a student-favorite throughout the years and states and countries. We will bring this song to the Landesjungensingen Wettbewerb in Leoben this year in April. The clear two-part harmony, the different vocal colors and placement as well as the clean choreography make the song a good candidate for competition success! Not to mention just how much the students enjoy it.
Choir is a time-investment for the students. It does require extra rehearsals and home-study, but the students show a true passion for the class. It doesn’t matter if you feel that you have vocal talent or not, there is a place for you in choir and Mrs. H. focuses on teaching good technique that is accessible for each student.
Thank you to everyone who came out and supported us last night. It was a real heart-warming experience to see so many happy faces in the audience!
Would you like to find out more about our choir?
Find out more about the activities, concerts and awards of the Elementary School Smart City Choir and be inspired by the enthusiasm and creativity of our young singers.