By Nika Madyoon and Michael Sugerman

 

Hundreds of Southern California students sang in the Southern California Vocal Association festival during the week of March 14.

The Chamber Singers and Combined Women’s Festival Chorus both performed and received Superior Ratings.

Chamber Singers performed four pieces: “Lady in the Water,” “i carry your heart,” “Ave Maria” and “The Battle of Jericho.”

The Combined Women’s Festival Chorus consisted of two Middle School ensembles – Girl’s Chorus and Vocal Ensemble – and two Upper School ensembles – Bel Canto and women from Chamber Singers.

The combined chorus sang three compositions: “Musica Dei Optimus,” “Elijah Rock” and “Come Away, Sweet Love.”

“It was nice to see the hard work we put in to get ready be rewarded with a Superior Ranking,” Halle Levitt ’12 said.

The importance of the rating, Hank Doughan ’12 said, is that it adds prestige to the assorted choirs.

“[The rating] shows intonation and blend within the choir,” he said. “It shows that we express musicality through our emotion in the songs.”

“It was really interesting to see the choirs from the different schools perform. I was so proud of our choirs because we represented Harvard-Westlake well,” Morgan St. Jean ’12 said.

In addition to their recent performance in the SCVA Festival, the Chamber Singers will be going on a choral tour of Spain over spring break from March 28 to April 8.

Students will visit Barcelona first, then Madrid, followed by Cordoba and Sevilla.

The itinerary for the trip includes activities such as guided sightseeing tours to view attractions such as the Sagrada Familia and the Palau de la Musica, as well as leisure time in each of the four cities that students will visit. Participating students will also sing in concerts throughout the country.

“Chamber Singers is really a family within the choral music program,” Doughan said. “I’m really excited to go to Spain because I feel that we will all become closer and soak in a wide variety of knowledge.”