Sweet Home High School’s Symphonic Choir will perform Friday, May 6, at the OSAA 4A state competition this Friday at George Fox University in Newberg.
The group is fresh off a tour to the Bay Area, where they won the Music in the Parks Festival at California’s Great America in Santa Clara, Calif. on Saturday, April 31.
The choir took first place in their division with a superior rating earning a score of 97 out of 100, and also were named the best overall high school choir and had the highest score of any performance group at the festival, which included nearly 60 bands, choirs, and orchestras.
In April the choir won the Sky-Em League championship April 5 and scored high enough to earn an automatic qualifer for state, Director Matthew Clark said.
He said the choir actually has earned qualifying scores in all four adjudicated festivals it has sung at this year, which, added to the three it competed in last year, adds up to seven straight qualifying scores. The choir placed seventh at state last year, but was only five points away from fourth place in a tight competition. That finish was its highest in school history.
“This will be the first time in school history that the choir has gone to state in back-to-back years,” Clark said.
Sweet Home will sing at 12:20 p.m. at Bauman Auditorium on the George Fox campus, 414 N. Meridian St., Newberg. General admission is $8 and $5 for students with IDs.
Clark said he expects his singers to do well in the competition, which includes three performance numbers of the choir’s choice as well as a sight-reading segment in which the musicians must perform music they are handed on the spot.
He said sight-reading is key to success for the choir, noting that it is one of “four or five” automatic qualifiers at state out of 43 4A schools. Another plus for Sweet Home is the increased number of singers – 51 currently, compared to 44 last year.
“If the choir can go up there and sing as well as they are capable of and do better in the sight-reading room than last year, we have a good shot at a high finish,” Clark said. “This is a very strong choir with a very good opportunity to place high at state. Last year we were five points away from fourth place. This choir has worked hard on the sight-reading portion of the competition and is much more prepared. Plus, the number of students, with the experience of last year, really puts us in a good position to make a strong run this year.”