High school choirs show their stuff at Stanislaus

All music classes were cancelled Thursday, April 10 to make way for California State University, Stanislaus' annual choir festival in the Snider Recital Hall.The festival began at 7:30 a.m. and featured 26 high schools (some from as far as Fresno) as the day progressed; ending around 8 p.m.

"We hold it every year and lots of students come. It's a great recruitment basis for the college," Carol Smeltzer said.

Smeltzer noted that the festival is "student run and a great way for students to learn leadership skills."

The student staff ran a smooth show with very few hiccups and only small amounts of downtime.

Smeltzer explained the process the individual choirs go through in order to perform; "They have 20 minutes to practice, up to 20 minutes to perform three songs and a 20 minute clinic in which an adjudicator gives advice to the director and class. The conductors get more info out of the clinic than the students."

Richard Colla, director of choirs at Modesto Junior College and an adjudicator for the event, said, "We listen to the group and give feed back on how to help improve. We then work with them one on one and explain a little bit what you (the audience) want to hear."

Although there was the added pressure of being personally reviewed, all the directors and students seemed happy to be at CSU Stanislaus to perform.

Rick Russell, the director of Merril F. West High School, was visiting Stanislaus for the second time.

He said he "felt very prepared. We really enjoyed performing in the hall." Russell also "thanked Dr. Alfonso for his continued help with the performance."

Inside Snider Recital Hall there was a buzz of excitement. It was many students' first time performing at the college. Vibrations echoed off of the walls and soundboards and the students smiled as they reveled in the opportunity to be performing.

Kimberly Chase, a junior at Tracy High School was "amazingly excited to be getting up in front of everybody with the same musical talents."

Los Banos High School senior Renee Souza said, "It's a great series of performances. A lot of different choirs are here with a lot of different sounds. It's great."

Director Bruce Koliha of Monte Vista High School (located in Danville) said, "It's nice to shake it up. It's my first time here and I'm very excited about the acoustics."

This sentiment was shared by many of the high school students who were amazed that they could actually hear their own voices reverberate back at them. Michael Hall, a student at Monte Vista, said "I like the dissonance it creates."

Despite the pre-emptive fervor, some choirs ended up facing the harsh realities of professional criticism.

Los Banos High School singer Shuan Rose, a senior at the school, initially said, "We're going to do great. "Joshua" (the piece they sung) is awesome. It really shows the men's power."

However, once the choir had left their clinic senior student Austin Hale said, "One of the judges of chamber of LBHS said, 'I wish you guys were on TV so I could change the channel."

It was no matter to Hale though, who said, "The campus is beautiful, it inspires me to go to college."

Each session ended with a performance by CSU Stanislaus' choir as a thank you for the high schools participating.