Five students participate in All State Choir
On Jan. 31, five Parkway North choir students performed at Tan-Tar-A resort in Lake of the Ozarks as part of Missouri’s All State Choir.
“It’s the highest individual honor to which a high school singer can aspire,” said choir teacher Brian Reeves.
In past years, Parkway North has sent several students to All Suburban and subsequently All State Choir. This year, junior Kirby Cooper, senior Amanda Crawford, junior Daniel Ham, and junior Sammy Elfanbaum were five of the 16 students from the St Louis region selected for All State Choir.
Starting in September of last year, choir teachers selected 32 students from Parkway North to audition for All Suburban/District Choir, which is comprised of some of the best high school singers in the area. To audition, students must prepare a piece and sing for three judges then sight read for an additional judge. The judges score students and the top scoring students are invited to join All District Choir.
“The judges pick the top twenty auditionees of the All Suburban choir from each voice part for the second round, to sing in a quartet (four people each singing their respective voice part). After the second round, only four people from each voice part make it to the All State choir,” said senior Amanda Crawford.
The top scoring All Suburban/District Choir students are then invited to audition for All State Choir in a blind audition for three additional judges. All seven scores are then tabulated and the top 16 students for 11 regions in Missouri are invited to participate in All State Choir.
Because of the nature of All State Choir, students were only given three days to practice as a group before performing.
“After they make the choir, the students have eight hours of rehearsals with their local All State Choir. Then in, January, they go down to Tan-Tar-A in Lake of the Ozarks; they convene with kids from all around the state; they rehearse about eight hours a day for three days then perform a concert,” said Reeves.
“By the time we got to Tan-Tar-A resort, everyone had almost all of the notes down, so the rehearsal were really focused on making the pieces sound musical,” said Crawford.
The All State Choir performed five pieces including Grace Before Sleep by Susan LaBarr, whom the students met at All State Choir.
“During the last rehearsal, we got to meet Susan LaBarr, the composer of a piece we were singing. She had been in All State choir when she was in high school too, so it was cool to connect with her and learn how she envisioned the piece to be sung.” said Crawford.
Overall, All State Choir proved to be a good experience not just for the music, but also for the chance to meet with other students who shared similar passions.
“I really enjoyed being able to meet people from all over the state,” said Crawford. “We all shared a passion for music, but each person had their own style of thinking. Everyone was friendly and was just excited to be there, making great music together.”
By Gianna Sparks, Copy Editor
