Sophomore Sophia Nguyen walked into Gardner Edgerton High School. Finally, she heard her name called, and she stepped into a classroom with a black curtain, concealing her face from the judges. The music began, and she sang her first note.
Nguyen qualified for East Central Kansas Music Educators Association District Choir alongside three other students: senior Jacob Drone, junior Tess Sollars and junior Caitlin Coble.
“The audition itself was really nerve-wracking,” Nguyen said. “I was super nervous for the sight reading, and you have no idea what it’s going to be like.”
The auditions were held on November 4. To prepare for it, students attended learning days at colleges like K-State and Baker. These learning days allowed them to learn the music with a group of students.
“I was able to really hear the part that I was singing, and the people sitting next to me were super nice and they were able to help me out when I was stuck,” Nguyen said.
Sollars said that the most challenging part of the audition was sight reading because she just got the sheet music just a few minutes before she had to sing it.
“I was nervous about the sight reading because it is a blind sight read that they just give to you with no way to prepare except really knowing how to sight read,” Sollars said.
The singers were scored by their pitch, ability to keep the beat and sight reading. To make it to state, they must attend the all district day performance, and the top 100 scores from districts will be moved to state.
“It was really nerve-wracking because I had no idea what to expect,” Nguyen said.
For the districts audition, the students prepared “Keramos” and “I’ll Be on My Way.” Because Nguyen and Coble made it into the Treble choir, the all-female choir competition, they will be singing “I’ll Be on My Way” along with four additional songs, including one that is an African worship song and another that is a Christmas song, on all-district day on Dec. 4.
“I really liked it because it has really nice harmonies, and I liked the message as well,” Nguyen said.
Choir director Robin Christie received the emails from the district chair letting the students know what they would be singing and registered them to compete. She also encouraged students to try with a deep faith that they would succeed.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t do it because they are nervous that they won’t get in, but she pushes us to try our best and go for it anyways,” Coble said.
