This summer, 20 LHS students were offered the opportunity to attend a six-day event in Brookings, S.D. performing in the Senior Honor Choir. Students were able to put their skills to the test, meet new people and make exciting memories that will last a lifetime. 

Before the event itself, students were presented with the task of completing a very strenuous audition; it consisted of preparing a solo singing of “America the Beautiful,” singing scales, performing sight-reading and exhibiting tonal memory all while preparing for semester tests. 

Senior Savannah Chhen had a lot of anxiety going into the audition; with so many tasks to complete and almost no room for error, Chhen had lots of preparation to do for the extensive audition process.

“The audition process was much different than other years. For me, it was a little nerve-wracking since we had to do it in the middle of the school day,” said Chhen. “After the audition, I felt very confident in what I did but we did not find out the results until almost a month later.”

Junior Mia Wentzel was also among the chosen, but the preparation for the event was not easy. After results were posted and the audition phase had passed, students were given a packet of music that was to be studied and memorized before the event in July.

“We were mostly on our own with learning the 12 pieces of music,” said Wentzel. “That included learning the different languages in the music. We even had two pieces in Hebrew which were very challenging.”

After the memorization and hard work in the audition had finally come to a close, the event had finally arrived. They spent the days prior to the performance fine-tuning any obstacles they found and extended their choral knowledge. 

“My biggest takeaway was to always have a pencil in my hand,” said Chhen. “If you made a mistake more than once, you would circle it or make a reminder so you would not continue making that mistake.”

Not only was this event great for the experience of performing with people from around the state, but those people were the ones that made the experience that much greater. Bringing together 74 students from different schools integrated different levels of experience and stories in and out of choir. 

“Getting to know new people and hear about their experiences was really eye-opening,” said Wentzel. “During the choir rehearsals, we also discussed the culture and stories behind music all over the world, which was very interesting to learn about.”

After a long summer of hard work, Chhen, Wentzel and the rest of the Senior Honor Choir were able to show off what they had learned and proudly perform all 12 of their songs in front of their loved ones. With their great experience within the program, they hope to return every year to meet new people and extend their knowledge even more.