Choir hits the right notes

     Earlier this month, students involved in music at the Nest tried out for all county chorus, band, and orchestra. Choir students share their experience with the auditions.

    Senior and choir student Aiden Pistel shares that he “auditioned because after 3 years in choir I felt like I was ready for a more advanced choir.” He adds that he “already had a lot of friends who [had] great past experiences with all county.” As for his experience with the audition, he says, “it had some challenges rhythmically, but otherwise our sheet music and sight reading challenges were not difficult.” 

     One of the two songs that choir students had to perform was German song ‘Waldesnacht’ by Johannes Brahams and Pistel says that he “spent 3-4 hours preparing that piece” and that song took him the longest to learn. He says his favorite part of his experience with the all county audition was when he overheard one of the instructors say “I like him.” He adds, “the experience was great as well, just learning about the other students’ choirs and experiences.” 

     Junior Kalyna Lloyd also made it to all county choir and she auditioned because “[she] wanted an opportunity to showcase my singing and to have a more advanced music education.” She adds, “Plus you get to meet a lot of new people!”

    Along with ‘Waldesnacht,’ Lloyd and all other students auditioning for all county choir were required to perform an excerpt from ‘I Am in Need of Music’ by Elizabeth Bishop. It took her about 3 days to fully prepare and become familiar with the songs. Lloyd shares that “meeting the judges and realizing how kind they [are]. I also loved the feeling of doing well other than a few small things.”

     Senior Julia Eakes who is also involved with choir says that all county is “a great musical opportunity to meet new people and work with really talented directors that I normally wouldn’t work with.” She said that she was “nervous because it was [her] first time auditioning.” She was also “worried about the rhythmic sight reading.” Eakes ended up making it into all state choir rather than all county with her audition.

     Senior Ethan Jourdan made it to all state choir along with Eakes. The reason Jourdan decided to audition was because “choir has been such a lovely and home-like experience for me, and I will always take up any opportunity I come across.” He shares that with a lot of practice, he did very well at his audition and that learning both songs took him about two weeks. His favorite part of the experience was “afterwards, when [he] got to talk with all of [his] friends who were also auditioning.”