By Nicki Resnikoff
Five students performed last month as part of the Southern California Vocal Association Regional Honor Choir.
Eric Slotsve â11, Alex Velaise â11, Jeff Yu â09, Jack Petok â11 and Lauren Seo â10 performed in a group of 260 Southern California high school singers with distinguished conductors, including Jo-Michael Scheibe.
The audition process in October consisted of singing an Italian song and scales and triads along with demonstrating tonal memory, vocal range and the ability to sight read.
Vocal teacher Rodger Guerrero, who is also the Vice President of Honor Choirs, told his students about the auditions.
“The audition was intimidating because we were each put into rooms with two judges,” Velaise said.
Petok auditioned because it seemed like a great opportunity for him.
“I wanted the opportunity to work with talented singers from around the state,” he said.
Less than a month after the auditions, SCVA announced those who would be in the Regional Honor Choir.
The choir consists of three groups, Womenâs, Menâs and Mixed Honor Choir.
Seo and Petok were in the Mixed Honor Choir, while Velaise, Slotsve, and Yu were in the Menâs Honor Choir.
“I found out that I had made the choir in mid-October,” Petok said.
“It was exhilarating. I really had wanted to make it, and the time between the audition and the results seemed like an eternity.”
“I was pretty happy to make the Menâs Choir because there arenât many of those around,” Slotsve said.
The choir members had a one hour rehearsal Honor Choir Weekend.
The weekend consisted of two full days of rehearsals on Friday and Saturday, leading up to the final performance on Nov. 22 at Santa Monica High School.
“The performance hall had the acoustics of a multi-millian dollar opera house,” Petok said. “All of the ensembles were sensational and received standing ovations all around.”
