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Students sing into summer at RAAC chorus, acting camp

by | Jun 18, 2026

Lilly Grimsley reads a page of her music as the chorus camp group practices a piece for their recital.
RCHS student Mori Thomas singing during RAAC's chorus camp last week.
Vocal camp teacher Breanna Leach working on a three-part vocal piece with the chorus camp students last Thursday.
Students review their lines in between practicing scenes during the drama portion of camp last Thursday.

Rappahannock County’s young singers and thespians have been honing their crafts this summer at the Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC) chorus and drama camps, which will culminate in a free final concert on Friday, June 19 at 6 p.m. at the Rappahannock County High School.

About two dozen rising fourth through 12th-grade students have been hard at work every weekday for the last two weeks — many participating in both camps — learning vocal technique and music theory alongside blocking, character development and all the elements of putting on a play.

Photos by Ireland Hayes

Author

  • Ireland Hayes

    Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner.
    Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.
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By Ireland Hayes

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Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner. Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.