Select CHS Choir Students Attend All-District Choir Monday, October 31, 2011 By Junior Adam Ussher The CHS students who made All-State Choir were: Juniors Daniel Sloan as a bass and Ashtyn Clay as 1st Soprano Alternate. - Sydnie Holzfaster Advertising Every year, CHS sends students to sing at the Northwest Missouri District Honor Choir, a prestigious choir hosted by Platte County. The choir practices intensely for one day and puts on a concert that evening. On October 29, they did just that. CHS sending students to All-District Choir is no new thing. CHS Choir director Brian von Glahn said, “We’ve been sending students for at least as long as I’ve been at Cameron. Out of the auditioning 26, we had 14 students make All-District Choir. Besides having students audition, I was also the All-District Coordinator for this year so I got to organize and set-up all the auditions, set up the choir day, find the clinician, and anything else that has to do with the process of the auditions and performance.” There is an extensive audition process to join the select choir. Freshman Nathan Ice explained, “There are two different parts to the audition. The first part is the sight-reading, which consists of identifying key signatures, melodic sight-reading, and part-specific sight-reading (singing your part with a four-part track). The second part is a blind audition where you sing a classical solo in front of three judges.” Students who audition often trust their solo to get them in All-District Choir. Senior Taylor Bogle commented, “The sight-reading, at least for me, was pretty hard because I get more nervous sight-reading than I do singing a solo. The solo isn’t as difficult for me because it just feels like I’m performing, and the judges are facing the wall so they don’t even look at you.” Taylor isn’t the only CHS student who feels this way. “I think my solo got me in,” Nathan said. “I sort of messed up in the sight-reading, but I nailed my solo,” Nathan added with a smile. Even though the audition piece is supposed to be classical, All-District Choir doesn’t sing strictly classical songs. Mr. von Glahn said, “They sing all kinds of pieces. A couple of the songs they sang this year were an Italian song and a Canadian folk song, and that was just part of the broad spectrum.” As All-District Coordinator, Mr. von Glahn had a say in who conducted All-District Choir. He said, “The conductor is always a guest clinician who is brought in for that specific year. This year that happened to be William Grega, who is from the Springfield district. Each year the plan is to have the clinician be a notable conductor from the Missouri area, sometimes going as far as Kansas or Nebraska.” All-District Choir was a memorable experience for any student. Taylor remembered, “There were so many people. Its amazing being part of a choir with 200 people where everyone is so excited to be there and just want to sing. It’s great being a part of that.” The students who made All-District Choir were: Freshmen: Jonah Bradford, Nathan Ice, and Meighan Robinson; Juniors: Ashtyn Clay, Adam Eden, Daniel Sloan, and Adam Ussher; and Seniors: Taylor Bogle, Sean Brier, Zane Clark, Matt Duncan, Faith Roberts, Jake Robinson, and Braiden Van Brunt. The students who made All-State Choir were: Juniors Daniel Sloan as a bass and Ashtyn Clay as 1st Soprano Alternate.

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