Chamber chorus members are preparing for the final round of All State Auditions, which will be Saturday.

“I have had students at All State in all my years teaching at West Shore, which is nine years,” chorus teacher Amy Davis said. “We have had someone in each of the six choirs. There’s Middle School Mixed and Treble choirs, and High School Mixed, Sight-singing, Women’s and Concert choirs.”

Junior Tessa Smith said she knew it was necessary for her to audition this year, since she is declaring voice as her primary instrument when she goes to college, and it will help her get a feel for what the college auditions will be like.

“To prepare for it, I am learning the seven songs that were chosen for the mixed choir to perform for the concert,” Smith said. “The actual audition is in three parts. First, I will sing a vocalise, which is sort of like a judged warm up that they have chosen. Then, I will sing an announced excerpt. Finally, they will ask me to sing two unknown excerpts.”

Although everyone will be singing together at the January conference, the auditions are a competition among singers from throughout the state. Sophomore Mady Anderson, who has gone through the process four times and has been accepted three times, tries not to let the competitive aspect get to her.

“I feel like everyone prepares so much for this,” she said. “Since it’s such a hard audition process, it is best just to be supportive of everyone. Everyone has worked so hard to get to that last audition, and we all want it so badly. Really, the most important thing is to have fun with it. That’s the most important thing, is to love it and love what you’re doing.”

By Hannah Kent