Juniors Daniel Ford and Devin Thompson, and sophomore Sam Martin performed at San Mateo High School with the California Educators Regional Honor Choir. They are the only representatives from Marin County.
The California Educators Regional Honor Choir allows students throughout California to sing in select choirs under the direction of nationally and internationally known conductors. Honor choir is an auditioned-based high school chamber choir. Juniors Daniel Ford and Devin Thompson, and sophomore Sam Martin are the only representatives from Marin County.
In the audition process, they had to be able to sing basic scales and triads, and then sing a solo that was already prepared. They also had to sing an Italian art song and some sight reading. Sight reading is performing a song you have not seen before. Each student’s score is out of 100. The cutoff is different each year based on the number of people who audition. They had to wait a couple of weeks until they found out whether they got in. Once informed, they were sent sheet music and notes to prepare for rehearsals and the performance from Nov.21 to Nov.23.
“Leading up to it was somewhat stressful because of nerves, but the audition itself was not,” Thompson said. “Everyone was super nice and helpful.”
Ford and Martin are in the Men’s choir, while Thompson is in the Mixed group. There are three choirs: mixed, treble and bass. Mixed involves soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Men’s choir incorporates bass, which is the lowest singing part. No student got put in the treble choir which is the highest singing part.
“I’m really excited to be around all sorts of people from the region who love singing,” Ford said.
At school, Ford participates in jazz choir, rock band, the recording club and musical technical theater. Martin and Thompson are also both involved in jazz choir, rock band and musical theater. Ford first participated in his elementary and middle school choir but became more serious about it when he joined San Marin’s jazz choir and started learning how to read music and understand the theory behind it. Thompson has been singing her whole life and looked up to Taylor Swift when she was younger, but once she started doing choir in middle school, it started to become a big deal for her. Martin began singing in fifth grade when he first sang o’cessate di piagarmi in a talent show.
“It’s a really cool opportunity that I would recommend anyone to at least audition for next year if you have any interest in classical singing,” Ford said.
