Irvington students sing in honor choir
By Shayna Kapadia | Editor-in-Chief
From Nov. 19-21, senior Joey Carini and junior Liberty Forster participated in the American Choral Directors Association’s honor choir program where students from schools across the country audition to be a part of their regions’ and states’ honor choirs every year. The California chapter of ACDA has three regions: Central, Coastal, and Southern.
Carini and Forster sang with the Coastal region’s honor choir at the First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto after rehearsing for a collective 14 hours the previous two days.
The choir performed seven songs: “O Admirabile Commercium” by Jacob Handl, “Cantata No. 172 Erschallet ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten” by J.S. Bach, “Sednalo e Djore dos” arranged by Sara Shakliyan, “Feller From Fortune” arranged by Harry Somers, “Prayer” by Morten Lauridsen, “No Time” arranged by Susan Brumfield, and “Ain’t-A That Good News!” arranged by Stacey V. Gibbs.
“The honor choir is a group of 240 of the best singers from the Coastal region,” said Carini. “We only perform once, but it’s a very intense yet fun experience and also stressful in some ways.”
After being selected for the honor choir from a pool of 1462 applicants, Carini and Forster learned the pieces they would be performing independently for a month before rehearsing with the group from Nov. 19-20 and performing the songs on Nov. 21.
One of the first activities the students must complete at rehearsals is ‘octet testing’ where the choir directors test the students to see if they know the music well enough to perform at the concert.
“If you don’t past octet testing, you’re sent home,” said Forster, “and your school will not be allowed to send students to the honor choir the next year.”
Carini and Forster passed the octet test and also were admitted among the 334 regional honor choir members to become this year’s all-state men’s, mixed, and women’s honor choirs. These choirs will be performing on Feb. 13 of next year in San Jose. Forster also hopes to be apart of the national honor choir being held next year.
