BY ROSA PRESTON

Recently, the Truman High School Choir participated in an Ensemble Festival. Basically, it’s where choirs and singers from different schools gather at one school to perform songs as a group or alone. And it’s not just for fun. There were judges who would watch each performance and decide how well they did. If they did well enough, students could go to state. The school’s Concert Choir and Trutones all participated in the event, and everyone was very happy with their performances.

Many students at Truman High School had solo performances while others were members of an ensemble. Or, like junior Trutone Ifechukume Chigbogwu, some were in both. “I was lucky enough to be a part of an SATB ensemble, SSAA ensemble, and take a solo to contest. I sang quite a few songs in this contest, but my personal favorites were my two solo pieces: Quella Fiamma and That’s Life. I was blessed to be in some very hardworking ensembles.”

Not to mention the teachers and mentors of the students were proud as well, as they know how hard they practiced. But it seems no one is as proud as Truman High School choir teacher Kim Carson. “I am so proud of how everybody competed and thankful for all the hard work in class and over spring break to make it all happen. 8 of the 9 ensembles advanced to state. There were 24 soloists total, and 19 of them advanced to state. So overall, 46 out of 48 students that competed have advanced to state.”

But, of course, getting to that point was not easy. There were some bumps along the road. “There were definitely a lot of struggles in learning the music in my solos and ensembles. In my SSAA ensemble, we sang a piece called ‘For Thy Sweet Love,’ which is a completely acapella, four-part piece adapted from Shakespeare’s writing. It’s sincerely one of the most difficult pieces of music I’ve sung in quite a while, because tuning and blending is super difficult, especially in a small group. I also struggled a lot with my solos, for I was singing in Italian and also working to sing a classical soprano solo with proper technique,” said Paige Gonzales, who is also a senior and a Trutone.

But overall, everyone did extremely well. Like Carson said, many of the students participating made it to state, and schoolwise, Truman High School was ranked number 1 in the district. Now, it’s on to state.