A NDG elementary school choir has had all their performances cancelled this year due to COVID-19, except for Tuesday’s night event. The group is making their debut performance singing one song, in front of more than 21,000 people in a performance they will never forget.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience to sing the national anthem at a hockey game,” said Grade 6 student Lily Anderson. “It’s really, really exciting.”
The Willingdon Elementary School choir has been practicing O’Canada to sing in front of the crowd at the Bell Centre ahead of the Montreal Canadiens matchup against the Ottawa Senators.
The grades five and six students have been warming up their vocal cords once a week for the past six months, ever since their audition with a Montreal Canadiens employee.
“He told us that he really liked our voices and how we sounded, so we were all pretty confident. We kind of knew he might have probably said yes,” Anderson told Global News.
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The performance has been a long time coming for Nick Batzios. The music teacher has tried to get his students in to sing the national anthem at a Habs game for as long as some of them have been alive.
“It was a big dream and it started about 10 years ago,” he said, adding, “so it’s 10 years in the making by trying and finding out what I have to do and and reaching out to people working really hard.”
Batzios aims to attend different events with the choir each year. This one is a little more personal for the Habs fan. So when the teacher found out he finally hit the right key, Batzios said it was a dream come true.
“It’s a huge, huge honour and I’m so grateful. I mean, it’s just we’re really blessed,” said Batzios.
Willingdon students say their teacher has taught them that perseverance and hard work can take you as far as you want to go.
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