By Sam Goodykoontz

Tempe Prep’s Cantamus choir performance was “superior” at the annual Jazz Madrigal Festival.

On Feb. 8-9, Cantamus traveled to Flagstaff to perform at the Festival. The trip impressed many newcomers, many of whom did not know what to expect, and it also impressed returners by the results. While much of the time during the trip was spent rehearsing for the performance, the choir also spent a large amount of time doing fun activities as a group, such as snowball fights and swimming, that made everyone closer to each other.

For example, sophomore Hayden Sampson, who is new to Cantamus, says, “I was expecting the trip to be all singing and sitting around. In the end, it was a lot of getting to know each other and hanging out with each other. The performance was super awesome and it was great to compete on a level we did not know we could compete at. I am really grateful for the opportunity to go on this trip. My favorite part was definitely hanging out in our hotel rooms and also hanging out at the pool. I feel like we grew closer as a choir and just had a good time. I would definitely recommend the trip to newcomers; it really made me enjoy singing.”

Cantamus earning a superior ranking, the highest rating,  also left a lasting impression on our seniors. For example, senior Madison Hanosh, who has been in Cantamus since freshman year, says, “As far as our performance, I expected us to do as well as we did last year when we got our ‘excellence’ rating. We had some really great songs and we were well prepared, and so I expected us to do really well. I also expected us to have a lot of fun because the NAU trip is always a blast. It was so amazing to hear that we got a superior rating. Since it is my senior year it was wonderful getting such a great rating for my last NAU trip. I was so proud of all of us and I was beyond happy with our rating.

“My favorite part was probably all of the time we got to spend in the snow after our performance. It was so much fun being able to hang out with everyone and enjoy the snow and have some pretty great snowball fights.”

Cantamus would not have been able to achieve a superior rating without the guidance of its awesome choir director, Aimee Stewart, who, in only her second year of directing was able to pull Cantamus from a “good” rating in 2017 to an excellence rating in 2018, to a superior rating this year.