During the rigor of All-State Choir auditions, four students – who practiced and auditioned together as a quartet – achieved the remarkable feat of being accepted. Together, they perform in the Compact Corner, creating music to showcase their extraordinary talent and the very music that led to their great accomplishment.

During All-State Choir auditions, every choir student learns, practices and sings the same music. Auditions are performed in quartets, with one singer of every voice part, including a bass, tenor, soprano and alto. During typical All-State auditions, choir students audition initially and then receive recalls. Rarely, students may be accepted without receiving a recall. All four members featured belong to the same quartet, and each was accepted outright.

In preparation for All-State, the group spent much time practicing together. “We tried to practice multiple times outside of school and also in school, going in between our class time and any power hours that we could…” Cade Huskey said. “We really just tried to focus on locking in our parts.”

On the day of the auditions, the results of the initial auditions were announced, but the names of the quartet were not among those recalled. Instead, they had unknowingly made it outright. The absence of their names on the recall list sparked some different reactions.

“There [were] a bunch of people telling us that it was very, very unlikely that you were to get in without a callback, so we were a little disappointed when we didn’t get one,” Addison Caltrider, an alto, said. But when the final results were posted, their emotions shifted. “I was surprised,” Dawson Foster said. “I worked very hard for this, and then when I saw our whole quartet got in, it [was] unbelievable.”

Despite their success, the singers still faced some challenges during their practice and preparation.

“We don’t have all of the voice parts,” Foster said. “So, in songs like Nunc, for example, it’s kind of hard to count the rests.”

Other singers, like Avery Garrity, found it difficult to care for their voices leading up to the audition.

“Singing a lot takes a lot out of you…” Garrity said. “Like, I probably had ten cough drops the day of All-State ‘cause I was already so tired and my voice was just dead, but I pushed through.”

Though the singers faced challenges and met their goals, their learning and growth as singers are far from over. All-State was only an attempt to grow for the singers, and now that they have endured the experience of All-State, they plan on continuing this growth.

“I want to continue to grow as a singer still, ‘cause there’s stuff I still don’t know,” Huskey said.

VOCALISTS (IN ORDER FROM LEFT TO RIGHT):

• Soprano: Avery Garrity
• Tenor: Dawson Foster
• Bass: Cade Huskey
• Alto: Addison Caltrider

SET LIST:

• America the Beautiful – Samuel Ward
• Nunc Dimittis – Gustav Holst
• I Am Glad – Daniel Schreiner