By Beckett Navarrette
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa Men’s Choir attended the LA Master Chorale High School Festival at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on the 22nd where they and other choirs sang seven songs for family members.
Although this is the third year the Mira Costa Choir has attended this event, this was the first time the Men’s Choir went, since they were created at the beginning of the school year. The Choir will have the chance to mingle with the other choirs and hear new sounds.
“It’s exciting to see and meet different types of choirs,” Men’s Choir member Senior Shun Yoshizawa said.
Rather than being chosen by Hayden, the songs were chosen by the festival, since the songs will be performed by other high schools too. Because of the shear size and carrying capacity of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the choirs will all get a chance to sing the songs together.
“They [The Men’s Choir] will be joining 900 other singers from 30 high schools singing seven songs,” Choir Director Michael Hayden said. “They will be performing for family members.”
The Choir group sang “Sign Unto God” by Judas Maccabeus, “Hold Fast to Dreams” by Susan LaBarr, “Alma Llanera” by Angel Sauce, “Long Time Ago” by Aaron Copland, “Down by the Riverside” by John Rutter, “Sanctus” by Ariel Quintana, and “My Good Lord’s Done Been Here” by André Thomas. The festival leaders believe these songs will bring out the best in the .choir group but not everyone is so sure.
“I honestly don’t think the songs are appropriate for a choir with so many people” Yoshizawa said.
The festival gave the Men’s Choir a chance to practice their singing skills and see how they stand compared to other California high school choirs. It also gave the students a sense of how it would be like to be in a professional choir group.
“This [was] an educational opportunity for our singers to perform in a large festival choir in a world premiere concert hall under the direction of a world class conductor,” Hayden said.
In order to perform their songs at such a high caliber, the Men’s choir members are constantly practicing and some even have separate voice coaches outside of school. According to Yoshizawa, it’s difficult to manage all his activities plus choir but he still manages to do it.
“I practiced my songs every day,” Yoshizawa said. ”It was hard to juggle around my choir music, musical music, audition music, homework from my voice teacher, and basic solfege, but I had lots of fun. And also, Mr. Haden teaches us very well, so I think we [were] prepared as a choir.”
Although the Men’s Choir has only performed a few times this year, they still practice constantly and work to improve their sound. According to Yoshizawa, this constant practice takes away a lot of the nervousness and stage fright that comes with performing.
“I am not nervous at all, because singing is a part of my daily life,” Yoshizawa said.
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