Park High School Choir Students Participate in Iowa Festival
Park High School Choir Students Participate in Iowa Festival
Eight Park Choir singers and their Music Teacher, Benjamin O’Connor, attended the 73rd annual Luther College Dorian Vocal Festival. The grand event was a two-day-long festival that started on Jan. 8 and concluded on Jan. 9 in Decorah, Iowa.
Abby Hall, Trinity Hobot, Kylie Jones, Sadie Jones, Finegan Barrett, Lucas Johnson, Gavyn Nybakken, and Elliott Vanasse sang with singers from hundreds of schools throughout the midwest.
Let’s hear what the high schoolers liked about the festival.
Kylie: “What I liked about the festival is that everyone who attended the festival went with a purpose, the purpose of becoming better as singers. It was awesome to see everybody’s focus and engagement.”
Elliott: “It was great to work with the college Professors, who taught us new skills and tactics on singing.”
Lucas: “It was great to see how many people were there. The volume and the power that was behind the sound was exquisite.”
Trinity: “I really liked the college setting, the sense of being independent, as well as working with the professors to gain more experience.”
Abby: “It was an awesome learning opportunity. It was like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I don’t think I could ever see again.”
Gavyn: “Singing at the festival was a unique experience because you just don’t get that many choir people focused on one set goal.”
A group of Park Choir students all echoed a similar sentiment: participating in the Dorian Vocal Festival at Luther College was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Choir Directors nominate outstanding singers from their schools to attend the festival that featured about 990 students.
“I don’t think I have ever been to a festival as large,” noted Gavyn. Abby reflected that last year they did get an opportunity to travel to Nashville, “but the Dorian Vocal Festival was a completely different experience.”
These talented students also had the special opportunity to experience the rehearsal process at Dorian and interact with the Director, who shared stories connecting the students to music and inspiring them to bring a story to each song.
When asked about their inspiration behind singing, the students shared some heartfelt answers.
Gavyn mentioned he finds it enjoyable to be part of a creative process that motivates others to create something new. Abby agreed, saying she loves being able to connect with other people through music and aspires to become a choir teacher someday.
Trinity fell in love with singing as a young child. “I just love telling a story through music,” she said. Lucas added that he loves meeting new people, especially those who share his passion for singing.
“There are people in the choir I thought I would never be friends with,” he said, “but now I am close friends with them, and it’s an amazing overall experience.”
Elliott reflected, “singing in a choir helps me to escape from life. I know that singing will always be here for me. It’s one of my happy places, and I find a lot of fun in it.”
Kylie draws inspiration from expressing vulnerable feelings through music. Expressing these vulnerable feelings through music in a choir creates a sense of community for her.
Difficult as the pandemic has been, one wonders how they pursued their love for music during these trying times. The resilience of the students was on display when they talked about how they stayed connected and practiced during the pandemic.
Lucas said rehearsing over Zoom made him feel disconnected, because during freshman year (before the pandemic), he would go to choir and feel ecstatic to be there in person. “It was my favorite hour of the day.”
The students agreed that waking up and signing on Zoom was nothing like the actual thing. Kylie pitched in that while they were all studying remotely, Mr. O’Connor, literally saved them.
“He was the heart of Park Choir,” she said. Mr. O’Connor attended the Zoom call every day, sitting at his piano, ready to sing. “It was inspiring how he always stayed positive and would provide that sense of hope for us, even when we were feeling kind of hopeless,” Kylie said.
Sharing their experiences about what it takes to be a singer, Elliott expressed: “singing is like an open field for anybody. Every single person can do it if they want to. All they have to do is just try.”
This vibrant conversation with the students gives the community a deeper understanding of how music plays a crucial role in enriching our lives. Hearing about the students’ passionate commitment to music makes SoWashCo Schools proud. Congratulations to our talented students and their dedicated choir teacher.