Performing national anthem at sporting events a test of skill

The pupils from Snyder Elementary School walk through the narrow tunnel and emerge into the soft sunlight of a perfect Saturday evening at Cashman Field.

They've waited for this moment. They've practiced for it, at school, at home, even while riding in the car with their very patient parents. And, now, finally, it's almost here.

Their chance to stand at home plate before a Las Vegas 51s baseball game and lead the crowd in singing the national anthem.

Singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at sporting events is, if you think about it, one of all-too-few rituals that unite us as Americans. Every night, somewhere, at all sorts of sporting events major and minor, Americans will rise together to sing the stirring -- and, it turns out, musically tricky -- song.

So, it's fitting that, at Las Vegas 51s games, leading the crowd in "The Star-Spangled Banner" is an egalitarian event, too.

The 51s bring in occasional professional guest singers to do the job. On the night before the Snyder singers' gig, for instance, anthem veteran Kissy Simmons, who portrays Nala in the Las Vegas production of "The Lion King," did the honors.

But, says Mike Graham, the baseball team's sponsorship services manager, "for 95 percent of the games, they're just regular people."

Some are members of organizations or companies that schedule nights out at 51s games. Others are chosen from among the many calls and e-mails Graham receives each season from prospective anthem singers.

Graham asks applicants to send along mp3s or CDs of them singing, just, he explains, "so I could hear them and make sure they're good to go."

But, he adds, "I'm not one for turning people down, usually."

Snyder Elementary pupils have been singing the anthem at Cashman Field for more than a dozen seasons now, says Traci Davis, the school's principal. In fact, the school's annual game at Cashman has become a tradition for the school community, she notes.

The school's 20-plus singers, all fourth- and fifth-graders, spent several days practicing "The Star-Spangled Banner, says music teacher Amanda Massy, and "we definitely talked about it, and I had a lesson in the classroom and went through the history of the song."

Graham notes that some singers have arrived less prepared. Some, he says, have ended up sounding "completely different" from their audio submissions. And some, Graham continues, "will come up and ask me if the words are going to be on the board, right before the game."

"Some are joking, and I'll joke back with them," he adds. "But you always have it in the back of your mind, 'Oh, man, I hope they're not serious.' "

Most end up doing well, according to Graham. "There might be people who skip a line or forget a couple of words. It's not that they don't know it. I just chalk it up to nerves."

It's not surprising, what a combination of nerves and the song itself can do. Tod Fitzpatrick, an associate professor of music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, notes that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is not an easy song, technically speaking.

"It's seemingly easy because we all know the tune," he explains. "But, in reality, the song has quite a range, and it's the range that kind of gets people nervous toward the end."

Some singers even begin the song deliberately lower than usual to ensure that they'll be able to hit the higher notes that come later on. The problem, it seems, is when a singer -- particularly a singer with no professional training -- begins the song too high and then faces high-note disaster as it winds up.

"It is a rangey song," agrees Simmons, who first sang the anthem in public at her high school graduation. Since then, she has performed the song at everything from college basketball games to 60,000-plus people at NFL games.

Even now, Simmons prepares for each anthem performance.

"Usually, I don't carry a pitch pipe with me," she says. "So, on that particular day when I'm going to sing it, I'll just sit around and hum where I'd like to start the song. And, by now, I know where the song is going to go. But, generally, I have a huge range anyway, so I have a lot of leeway."

As of last week, Paul Villaluz has sung the anthem before 186 Las Vegas Wranglers hockey games. But, he admits, "for the first couple seasons, I remember I'd be doing it at least 10 or 20 times before I'd go out there to get the cadences right and the dynamics right."

"It's one thing to sing it," adds Villaluz, who also does a few Las Vegas 51s dates each year. "It's another to sing it with musicality."

But as any sports fan knows, "The Star-Spangled Banner" also is an adaptable sort of song. "You can turn it into a gospel number or a country-western number, and all of those," Fitzpatrick says.

However, regardless of the musical or stylistic spin one chooses to give it, the anthem also is a well-known song. Because of that, it's easy for an audience to notice when something does go awry.

"More often than not, you hear people that just sing it a little out of tune, and it's usually newer kind of popular people that get thrown up into the national spotlight to sing," Fitzpatrick says. "Say, they have a new album out, but they're on the younger side, perhaps, and when you have to sing live like that, it doesn't hide too much."

Snyder Elementary's Massy intentionally kept her pupils' version straightforward, with no complicated musical flourishes. That, Graham says, usually is a solid strategy.

"I think every once in a while you get people who try to make a show of it," he says. "But the song is hard. It's not easy to do. So I think a lot of people just want to get through it as best they can without making it more complicated than it is."

For her appearance with the 51s, Simmons, too, opted for a version that, while containing a few subtle vocal flourishes, was straightforward, powerful and affecting.

"I'm not a vocal gymnast, so, yeah, how I do it really suits me and my voice," she explains. "I'm a firm believer ... in being able to sing sustained notes, be colorful, mean what you say and just let it do what it do, because the song's already been written -- lyrically, vocally, notewise -- so I don't need to be re-composing or rearranging the song."

And, as with any performance, the bottom line is to give the audience what they want. That's why Villaluz -- an avid hockey fan himself -- keeps his anthem performances to about 90 seconds.

"If I'm in concert on my own and open with the anthem, I could stylize it," he says, "but that's just not the time."

And, always, regardless of vocal approach, audiences expect singers to treat the song with respect. Villaluz still remembers his father's advice when he got the Wranglers' gig to "make sure I respect the song for what it is. It's bigger than me or any other anthem singer."

Snyder Elementary's singers just happen to nail it. They sound great, they don't miss a word, and they're as excited as, well, kids when it's all over.

Count Lisa Leslie, whose son, Logan, was one of the singers, a fan.

"I was blown away," she says. "That was really awesome."

It was, Logan admits, "freaky. It was nervous. Like, if you mess up, you can ruin the whole song."

Massy, too, is impressed. "I think they did a really great job," she says. "I'm really proud."

And that's the thing about our national anthem: When a singer does it well, it's nothing less than inspiring.

Simmons admits that, after years of performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at all sorts of sporting events, she still feels excited every time she sings it.

"You just never know who you're going to touch," Simmons says.

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.