Students prepare for ‘vocal boot camp’
January 6, 2012
By Christina Lords
Five Liberty vocalists set sights on all-state choir
Liberty High School selections to the WMEA All-State Choir, posing during a Liberty Singers practice with teacher Robin Wood, are (from left) Ashlynn Rowe, Pamela Edmonds, Jaylyn Andrus, Eric Spradling-Reim and Courtney Santos. By Greg Farrar
For Liberty High School senior Pamela Edmonds, the upcoming Washington Music Educators Association all-state choir workshop in Yakima isn’t just singing beautiful songs with some of the best high school singers in the state.
“Think of it more like a vocal boot camp,” she said.
There were 22 students from the Issaquah School District selected for this year’s WMEA annual conference, which culminates with a three-day marathon that will include more than 100 educational sessions, 30 performing groups and 80 exhibitors.
More than 1,600 students were selected for the WMEA All-State honor groups, which include students from fifth to 12th grade, and more than 1,000 music educators from the state are expected to attend this year’s conference.
The first WMEA conference was held in 1937.
“The experiences gained through a program like this are invaluable, both to the individual and to the program at large,” said Robin Wood, Liberty’s choir director. “The knowledge gained from working with vocal peers in an advanced group raises the bar for the entire program when those students come back to their home choir programs.”
The excitement generated when students come back from the conference to share their stories with the other members of their choirs encourages their peers to take the leap and audition the following year, Wood said.
“Through this elite statewide group, each student has the opportunity to work with renowned conductors and educators from across the country … cementing advanced techniques in their own approach to singing and working with their home choirs,” she said.
Liberty students selected to perform are Ashlynn Rowe and Eric Spradling-Reim in the symphonic choir and Jaylyn Andrus, Edmonds and Courtney Santos in the treble choir.
Issaquah High School students include Jack Wheeler in the symphonic choir, Clayton Dungey and Madison Kelly in the wind ensemble, Alexander McCartney from the chamber orchestra and Jeremy Tang in the symphony orchestra.
Skyline High School students include Andrea Yi in the orchestra and Vica Tkatch and Brooke Rundle in the band. Julia Coutant, Andrew Millett, Rio Sano and Mikenna Whatley will participate in the symphonic choir while Kylie Boyd, Courtney Cohen, Devon Davenport and Charlotte Zhao will sing for the treble choir.
Each student prepared in the fall an audio recording of themselves singing “America the Beautiful,” scales and arpeggios and was selected for his or her respective group.
Students selected received the music they’ll be performing Jan. 4, and they’ll have just over a month to learn the songs before the state conference opens Feb. 17.
“It’s always nice to be around people who love to sing and who are good at what they do,” Andrus said.
For the students who want to take their musical careers beyond a high school choir to college and beyond, the experience of performing with world-renowned conductors from across the country will make them stand out through experience on their performance résumés, Edmonds said.
The students will have the opportunity to work with peers from the state on different styles of music that they’ve never experienced before, Spradling said.
“Performance is everything,” he said. “For me, I’m just so looking forward to working with and being around a great group of male singers. I have so much to learn from them.”
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