47 choir students tried out and made the all-region choir in October. This was the end of a long preparation time with numerous rehearsals.
The choir students all received their tryout music in the second week of school and from there they practiced each day in class.
“Some days certain voice parts would stay after school and practice with Mrs. Niederbrach,” says senior Os Valdo.
Valdo would also listen to the music at home and sing along at least once a week, but as the tryout day drew nearer he would practice more and more.
Many students tried out, but only fifty per voice group could be placed in a sought after spot in the All-Region Choir.
“There was a lot of people there, it was really big. We had a lot of schools come in. There was Riverview, Parkview, Cabot, and North Pulaski there with us,” says sophomore, Migdalia Marquez. “Those were just a few of the schools.”
“There were about one hundred girls in each voice group [Soprano one and two, and Alto one and two], and only fifty boys per voice group [Tenor one and two and Bass one and two],” says Valdo. “But this year there were around one hundred boys trying out in my voice group: Bass two.”
There was a lot of waiting involved, especially since there were so many students trying out.
When schools arrived the contestants had to register by voice parts at a desk where they would receive their tryout number.
“After that we would sit and wait, they would play the tryout songs every thirty minutes or so,” says Marquez. “There was a big projector screen in the cafeteria that displayed what tryout numbers were next. They would post about ten numbers at a time.”
Waiting for their turns could have taken hours depending on what time they arrived and what number they had, this made a good time to practice and think; but everyone always has their own case of bad nerves when it comes to a performance such as this one.
“It was a lot better waiting,” says Marquez. “I felt really comfortable, but as soon as I got in the tryout room my voice couldn’t stop shaking. The fact that they were hidden behind the tarp made me even more nervous than just trying out.”
Valdo shared similar feelings when it came to the tryout room.
“I wasn’t nervous until I got into the tryout room,” he says. “I got very nervous and I thought to myself ‘Did it just get colder in here?'”
The contestants each practiced the same four songs.
“Each one was really different,” says Marquez. “You had to really think about transitioning from song to song.”
“My favorite would have to be ‘O Sacrum,'” says Valdo. “It is in Latin, and Latin pronunciation is very similar to Spanish, my first language. I also really liked what it translated to in English.”
The students weren’t given their scores as they left the room.
Valdo was fortunate enough to place nineteenth chair out of fifty students over all.
