For the first time under choir director Mr. Andre Clark, Chamber Choir performed at Madrigal Festival on Feb. 23. The festival in San Antonio is a chance for varsity mixed choirs from across the state of Texas to compete and show off the music they have been working on.

“To take this program that you’ve been crafting for a great period of time and really refining to the point of really perfecting something that you then share with 42 of the best choirs in Texas,” Mr. Clark said, “to be able to share [Chamber Choir’s] hard work with them, and to be able to learn from them as you listen to their hard work, long term, it’s a great experience.”

Choir students started their journey on Friday, stopping first at Texas State University to work on their music with a college choir director, Dr. Joey Martin. Afterwards, Chamber Choir was able to listen to one of Texas State’s top music groups, VocaLibre, and Round Rock High School’s varsity mixed choir, Chorale, work on their music.

“Even with a choir that knows how to have fun, when we want to focus, we can,” Anthony Pham ‘19 said. “The experience and advice of directors and other clinicians really helped us pull through and make better music.”

After the intensive clinic, choir students traveled to San Antonio for the competition itself. They woke up bright and early to showcase the pieces they had been working on for months. The selections Chamber Choir picked to compete with had many different moods. The set started with Sicut Cervus by Palestrina, a motet written in the Renaissance meant to be performed at churches. In the middle was a contemporary piece called Bluebird, based on a poem by Mary Coleridge. While still managing to showcase the choir’s choral talents, it was a slightly jazzier number. Chamber Choir finished with Rytmus by Ivan Hrusovsky, a fast-paced piece which brought an explosive end to their performance.

“The performance itself was really fun, even though at first we were really nervous,” Neal Gandhi ‘20 said. “But by the end, as we went to go perform, we relaxed and realized we could trust each other and knew that no matter what would happen, we would be fine, and Mr. Clark would be proud of us.”

Especially this year, students from different electives, such as band, have joined choir, providing a new outlook on the program and competing. Only recently has choir started going to more events to get judged and critiqued, while in previous years, only UIL gave students that experience.

“[Like band,] it’s more about music and performance as a whole. Feeling the music is really important,” Laney McFadden ‘20 said. “Judges [who] can tell that you enjoy performing will like you a lot more, and that’s something you can carry into any part of music.”

Though Chamber Choir didn’t place, they still received a trophy for a Performance of Distinction. Only groups that managed to get the highest rating possible from all judges were given this honor.

“It’s always nice to be recognized by your judges for all of the things that go into it,” Mr. Clark said. “It’s so much easier to point out the things that could be improved or didn’t go so well, but when you look at your sheets and your students are recognized for all of the things that they did right, and all of the work they put into it, it’s just a humbling experience.”