Bright, early, and rainy, the Westwood Innova and Chamber choirs set out for Houston in the hope of coming home with a trophy, a dream that was soon realized by the end of the day. On Saturday March 7, the choir competed at the annual Madrigal & Chamber Choir Festival at the Foundry Church in Houston.

The varsity mixed choir, Chamber, and the varsity treble choir, Innova, both received superior ratings in their afternoon performances. Chamber fed the animated audience a variety of pieces; an upbeat Latin song Venite, Exultemus Domino by Jan Sweelinck, a luminous a capella work Surge Illuminare by Michael John Trotta, and a traditional Middle Eastern Folk piece Talaa Min Beyt Abuha by Abu-Khader. Bringing a similar Eastern European aura, Innova varied between two uncommonly dynamic songs, Bulgarian piece Ergen Deda by Peter Lyondev and Hungarian piece Dancing-Song by Zoltan Kodaly, with the Scottish solemn piece, Annie Laurie by Arthur Frackenpohl.

“I like Eastern European folk music, it is always very interesting to perform because it is very different from the pieces we have done in the piece which were American or British,” Mariia Illarionova ‘28 said. “The enunciation in the song is very different from the diction of the songs we’ve done this year so far.”

Creating a greater sense of community, numerous students spoke of a new environment experienced in the humid Houstonian weather. Seen in the crowds, the nervous buzz of choirs from all over central Texas brought people together in games of rock-paper-scissors through the swarm of singers. 

“It was an interesting and good experience to try something different and try something new by competing for a score rather than trying to impress our family and friends like at all our other concerts,” Breelyn Tarno ‘28 said. “I wasn’t quite so worried about scoring a one or a rank though, I was kind of just enjoying the ride a little bit more due to the environment there.” 

A couple days before the University Interscholastic League (UIL) competition, the choir took on more than ten central Texas choirs for professional musical advice and gold trophies. After each performance, the chorales received feedback from Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) certified collegiate music professors.

“I remember that after our performance, our [TMEA] clinic teacher gave us a bunch of fun things to incorporate in our songs for better effects,” Ian Schultz ‘29 said. “He told us to mirror the Spongebob laugh in our diction for a more nosy effect which he said was the whole point of the song, to ‘wow’ the audience with an untraditional way of singing.”

With valuable feedback before the upcoming UIL, the choir left Houston with a different perspective on their individual performances. Some were disappointed Westwood did not place like in the previous years, while others still romanticized the memorable and unique performances of the evening honor choirs that left the audience in awe. 

“I remember that after the last [honor choir] performance, everybody in the audience stood up,” Illarionova said. “They were so good and I hope we can take their level to better our own selves and hopefully place or even win next year. However, even if we didn’t place this year, I know I had so much fun, it was a very enjoyable Saturday.”

All Westwood choirs will compete f at the UIL Concert & Sight Reading Evaluation competition on Monday, March 9 and Tuesday, March 10 at Georgetown High School.