My name is Daryl Ussery, President and Founder of Show Choir Nationals. I have been in the entertainment business for 56 years, in High School, College, Church, and Show Choir Nationals. I started teaching at Homewood High School in Homewood AL. in 1979 with Concert Choirs and Ensembles where I went on to establish the Show Choir program in 1984. I continued to teach there and grow the choir program until 2000. After retiring from Homewood High School, my son Derrick, daughter Blair, and myself started Show Choir Nationals in 2002.
When we began Show Choir Nationals in 2002 we wanted to strive to offer the best show choir competition experience that choirs could attend. We sought input from groups around the country in order to create the best competition possible for not only the groups, but also the spectators, directors, and chaperones. We asked groups the following questions:
How was the last show choir competition you attended?
Were the staging, lighting, and sound system in perfect order?
Were your hotel rooms clean, ready, and as advertised when you arrived?
Did your group have adequate space to store your equipment?
Did you have someone assigned to your group to guide you?
Did some answer your questions and help you with those unexpected problems?
Were your judges people who understand what you do, and why you do it?
From the responses we received along with the experiences we had directing multiple groups over the years, we created Show Choir Nationals with the following goals in mind.
Our goals are:
To gather elite, competitive groups like yours from across the country, so that every participant learns, not only from performing himself, but from watching other excellent performers.
To provide the best in performance locations in order to maintain the integrity necessary for a national competition.
To have show choirs judged by current educators who have worked with show choirs themselves, or who have remained active in judging.
To use rules that make competition fair without imposing artificial limitations on shows that you have designed.
To sponsor a contest at a destination that is fun for the participants and easy for the chaperones to coordinate the group’s activities.
Now in our 23rd year of Show Choir Nationals, hosting our 21st competition this coming March, we believe that we have continued to take what we have gained along the way, sticking to our goals, and created the best Show Choir Competition in the Nation the best stage that any singer/musician could perform on at the Grand Ole Opry House.
Daryl Ussery
President and Founder