Beyond solely taking choir as a class, these three California High school students decided to challenge themselves to join an honor choir composed of students from all over SoCal. An honor choir is an advanced kind of choir that typically rehearses over the course of a couple of days, ending their time together with a stunning performance for an audience.
David Gutierrez is a junior who participated in the SATB choir. SATB stands for “soprano, alto, tenor [and] bass”, which are labels for the type of vocal range a person may have. (Soprano and altos are commonly associated with female singers, due to their higher ranges, while tenors and basses are lower and therefore more common in males.) “The audition process…is kind of hard to do, but it’s one that–if someone wants to pursue music–is actually really helpful because it teaches you what is looked for in most auditions… it’s quite fun, [but] very stressful..” In an audition, a singer must perform an art song, tonal memory (hearing a five-note pattern and repeating), sight reading, the major and chromatic scale, and major and minor triads. “The people are fun, and you meet people from all across southern California… The directors are actual university and college directors; they teach you so much about music!”
Lee Tees, a senior, was in the SSAA choir (sopranos and altos only). “I was incredibly nervous faced with the prospect of screwing up, but in the end I scored high enough to qualify, which felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders”. Sometime after the audition, if accepted, one is given a packet of all the sheet music in order to memorize in time before the choir rehearses together. “I… annotated it [the music] with the instructor’s notes as well as [wrote] in all my solfege”. During the actual time spent with the choir, Tees commented “it was lovely, and I was glad to be surrounded by such talented musicians… everyone… was so friendly and collaborative…”.
“When I auditioned, I was very nervous… It was the first time I’ve ever auditioned for anything outside of school… [but] as soon as you get there, everyone [the adjudicators] is super nice!”. Joseph Amos, also a senior in choir, was in the TTBB (tenors and basses) choir, which is composed of people with lower vocal ranges, also known as tenors and basses. “[The people in the choir].. were really nice, but didn’t talk to others outside of their friend group.. [however] there were good people there.” When asked about how much effort was needed, Amos replied with, “It was a lot of work, but it was really rewarding in the end.”
