Two of our Rockbridge Youth Chorale singers, Joe Harrison and Caroline Lauck, recently auditioned and qualified for the Southern Division American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) High School Honor Choir event which took place March 11-14 in Mobile, Alabama. Unfortunately, the session had to be cut short by, you guessed it, corona virus. Nevertheless, the closing concert went forward on shortened rehearsal time. Joe is a senior at Rockbridge County High School and this was not his first time at Honor Choir. Here are some of his observations.

"It is always an interesting experience to work with different conductors with a unique style and personalities. We saw our two conductors deal with a stressful and unexpected situation - Covid-19, which was interesting to observe. Unfortunately, pieces needed to be cut for the performance, due to the time factor, and my favorite piece from the program, Ballad to the Moon, was one of the cut pieces. While it is not a technically challenging piece, the amount of time it would take to make those longer notes shimmer and the melodies flow was too much. Musically, the most interesting part for me was the metronome. They treated us like an orchestra first and then added musicality on top of that. I don't agree with the approach, but it was interesting regardless.”

“One thing that always gets me at these honor choirs is all the basses who have an insane range. Being a bass myself, I get a twinge jealous when I hear the person next to me singing a low C louder than me. The person to the right of me had been to thirteen ACDA events and five all-state honor choirs. Part of the wonderful experience of being in a mass honor choir is you get to meet all sorts of people. It is always a treat to go to these wonderful events!”

We are grateful to our principle youth chorale director and ACDA member, Lacey Lynch, for recruiting these talented young people and for bringing them to a musical place where they can successfully audition for such a prestigious event. Auditions are never for the faint of heart, and they are highly competitive. We are really proud of Joe and Caroline! Your donations help us achieve this support for the young singers of our community. If you regularly attend our RYC concerts, you know how good these kids are. Thanks for all you do to help the RCS achieve its mission goals which include the development of choral music among our community youth!