The Sweet Home High School Symphonic Choir placed first in its league April 4 at a competition in Roseburg, automatically qualifying for the state competition.
The choir’s average score improved by about three points from its initial competition in Lebanon two weeks earlier, said Choir Director Duncan Tuomi.
The Oregon Education Music Association has several districts composed of various Oregon School Activities Association leagues.
Sweet Home is in OMEA District 10, which includes the Sky-Em League and Special District 2, both OSAA leagues.
Sweet Home placed third in District 10 but first in the Sky-Em, which allows Sweet Home to proceed to state, Tuomi said.
“I’m ecstatic with their performance. We spent a lot of time reviewing the notes our previous adjudicators gave us and working on those, and a lot of the things we were commended for yesterday were improvements that we made since last time.
“They’ve put in the work, and it definitely showed. Particularly, we got the highest marks in our vocal technique, followed by our quality of sound. The next level that we’ll be targeting as we approach state is getting even deeper into musicality, phrasing and dynamics.
“We’ve come a long way, but there’s always another step we can take to keep improving.”
The choir spent Friday and Saturday on a tour in Seattle, Wash., performing its competition set at various stops. Featured on the trip was a workshop at Pacific University and tours of the Boeing Museum of Aviation and Museum of Pop Culture.
The choir will perform at the state choir competition in May 4 at George Fox University.
Information about the history of the choir in state competitions previously reported on March 28 was incorrect.
The choir last performed at state in 2013.
The choir first competed at state in 2005 under the direction of Paul Meyers, said Matthew Clark, the previous director, who is now teaching in the Cascade School District. The choir qualified and performed at state in 2010. In 2011, the choir qualified and performed at state finishing as runner up. The choir qualified and performed at state again in 2012 and 2013.
In 2014, the choir qualified for state, Clark said. The choir was not selected from the tape pool but was still recognized for having met the qualifying standards to perform.
The choir did not qualify in 2015 or 2016.
Current Symphonic Choir members are Christian Black, David Briggs, Shelbie Brown, Justin Buchanan, Kylee Ceccato, Nadia Chumsri, CeCe Cloud, Carrie Collins, Haylee Collins, Jandy Drake, Ashley Farthing, Aubrie Furst, Seth Gaylord, Shelby Goodwin, Braden Greene, Mariah Harrington, Holly Lester, Baillie Majors, Kassandra Matney, Colby Montigue, Benjamin Mull, Jackson Musgrove, Cedar Paris, Karla Perez, Alisa Rouse, Jessica Sanderson, Tatiana Tolman, Abigail Underwood, Kirstin Weippert, Angeleah Williams, Ronald Wilson, Bradley Wolthuis and Bekah Woody.
“They are singing at a very high level and it feels good to know that the program is in very good and capable hands,” Clark said.