Outstanding northwest singers

MOSES LAKE -  Seven outstanding music students represent Moses Lake High School at the upcoming conference in Bellevue.

The Northwest Division of MENC: The National Association for Music Education Conference is Feb. 16-20.

Nearly 1,000 students from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming rehearse under the direction of world-renowned conductors and present their final concerts in Benaroya Hall, located at 200 University St., in Seattle.

Moses Lake High School seniors Erin Frey, Conner Leavitt, Carlos Hernandez and Jessica Allen along with junior Brittany Callahan, sophomore Holly Tye and freshman Madisyn Lybbert are participating in the jazz and symphonic choir performances.

Moses Lake High School Choir Director David Holloway says the students were accepted to the conference after sending in recordings of themselves singing.

"The conference was open to any kids who wanted to audition," Holloway says. "Jazz choir is a little more selective. Most group choirs consist of 100 kids and jazz choir is about 22 to 25 kids, so the audition is more difficult and involved. It's really great that we had four kids selected for that group, I don't think there's any school that had that many selected. The kids are pretty pumped about it."

Singers will spend four days together at the conference, says Holloway. 

Students worked hard practicing on their own to prepare.

"Auditions required students to sing two major scales, a low and a high, and it's all based on their voice category, alto, tenor and bass, and then they sing a chromatic exercise where they go up a half-scale, seven steps, lastly they sing 'America the Beautiful.' The jazz choir have two or three other parts they have to do on top of that." 

Leavitt performs as second bass in the jazz choir and says having confidence is very important.

"You perform a series of scales, improvisations and all of the singing is a capella," Leavitt says. "You have to be confident in yourself."

Carlos Hernandez says this is his second time attending a major conference. He attended an all-state conference two years ago.

"Jazz choir is the most challenging because you have to blend with all the other people singing," says Hernandez. "But this is exciting because this is the first time any of us have made it into the all-Northwest."

For Madisyn Lybbert, this is her first major performance and she says while she is excited to learn new techniques, she's still a bit nervous.

"It's kind of intimidating because everyone else is going to different choirs and I'm all alone," Lybbert says.

Lybbert represents Moses Lake High School as the first soprano in the mixed choir.

"It's really great for them to get to represent our school," Holloway says. "Sometimes it can make a huge difference in their lives. It definitely looks good on a resume and applications because it's an honor to be selected. This shows that they're working hard in class, have vocal ability, they are dedicated and wanting to improve. I hope that the caliber of singers they are surrounded by makes them step up, they might be really good singers at MLHS but when they are surrounded by 100 kids who might be better, it makes them come back and work hard at their school."