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Students from NS performed with their peers from around the state in the Utah Men’s and Women’s Honor Choir on Saturday, Jan. 14. Honor choir is made up of choir students from across the state.
“Each program sends their best kids, and then they all get together and make one big choir,” music teacher Tim Kidder said.
The students from NS are Libby Booher, Kenna Cook, Jake Cox, Josh Cox, Janessa Dyches, Tezra Fisk, Kaceeus Hathaway, Cael Howard, Cordell Jessop, Sophia Johnson, Summer Johnson, Brathan Nielsen, Hannah Perry, Connor Power, Jaron Sieback, and Maylee Yorgeson.
One of the major differences between a high school’s choir program and Honor Choir is how many can get in.
“We’re only taking sixteen of our kids,” Kidder said. “We’re going to be singing with other schools instead of just our school.”
According to some of the students, the more notable difference isn’t the size of the program, but the prestige of the choir.
“Honor Choir is different pretty much because it’s harder music and everyone there really appreciates singing,” senior Kaceeus Hathaway said.
Each January, Honor Choir performs in Abravanel Hall – a concert hall in Salt Lake City.
Getting into the choir is not easy. The students at NS have to pass multiple auditions to get in because of how our choir is set up.
“Our choir happens to be an audition choir, but honor choir you have to audition again to get to perform with them,” senior Libby Booher said.
Making it through the auditions can be hard, but it is very rewarding for the students that make it.
“To be accepted into it is big. To memorize your songs is even bigger and then just to be able to perform with the people next to you, knowing what you’re singing is huge,” Booher said.
A lot of practice is required to participate in honor choir.
“On Friday we spent nine or ten hours practicing with an hour break in between every three hours, so you practice for a really long time together,” Booher said.
The practice may have been difficult but performing together was an unforgettable.
“I had an absolutely great experience, and I loved being at Abravanel Hall,” Hathaway said.
For Booher, performing with peers from around the state and the community of the program is part of what makes the experience enjoyable.
“It’s a cool experience,” Booher said. “You get to go into a place with six-hundred other people who all sing the same thing as you.”
