By Violeta Panayotova

While many have different styles and likings of music, without music, life would B-flat. In many Tempe Prep students’ cases music is not just to pass time with but, rather, it is their time. In the past two months many events have occurred and one of the big ones was the all-region choir audition and festival.

Many schools such as McClintock, Dobson High, Chandler Prep, Scottsdale Prep and many more public, charter and private schools around the state are competing in regions for a prestigious spot in the all-region choir festival. Students are supposed to pick a piece that they are going to perform while practicing sight singing.

As the audition day rolls around the student goes and performs the song that they have picked and later that day they have to show their impeccable sight singing skills. While many try and are pretty successful, only a few get accepted.

Junior Eric Johnson and sophomore Clara Moffitt showed that this can be done with a lot of practice and dedication and they successfully went through the audition and being accepted into the choir which performs at a festival.

Not only is singing rewarded, but playing an instrument as well, as Tempe Prep’s own Lizzie Turley, who plays violin, was accepted in the all-region orchestra.

The accomplishments of these students are immense but they did not achieve them by practicing a few times a week. Quite the opposite actually. Eric explains that “once it got to a month and a few weeks before the audition I was practicing every day.” Clara, similarly to Eric, practiced sight singing every single day for an hour and sometimes for more than that. While this hard work may sound and feel tedious, it definitely pays off.

Being accepted in the all-region choir is an incredible accomplishment. It gets even worse and better when it comes to the all-state choir. According to Eric Johnson, only 50 people from the all-regional choir actually makes it to the all-state in each voice part. The excitement and the hardship students go through is big and the end result is worth all of the sweat. The all-state choir travels around the state and performs at different universities each year.

This year students get to go to Flagstaff to perform and show their talents to everyone. The experience of the concert and the audition changes a person in plenty of ways. To begin with, Clara explains her practice experience of continuing to practice every day. “It was hard to budget the time, to set aside an hour every day,” which forced her to prioritize even more and to see how she is going to get to the place where she really wants to be. Clara began to understand “what methods worked best for me,” which made her practicing even better.

But it did not take just the student and their devotion to what they wanted to achieve; different teachers helped them along the way. To choose a piece to perform in front of the judges is hard but excited parents and teachers helped Clara and Eric with the process and making sure they go the extra mile in order for them to stand out.

Now that these incredibly dedicated students are coming closer to the time when they are going to have their big performance they feel the pressure of being more than perfect, especially knowing that they may be declined the spot if they are not prepared enough.

But at the end everything is worth it because “it is almost exhilarating when you sing together for the first time, how everyone has worked hard on their music and we can walk on stage and sing together and no one will know that we have not rehearsed at all” together, Clara says.

Perhaps even the best part is the time to perform because the students are finally going to show everyone what they have worked so hard on doing for weeks and months and they can finally shine as the stars that they are and make our lives a little bit sharper.