By Theresa O’Connor
Not only is a majority of the current TPA Cantamus membership new participants, but after its first year back from an online world the choir won a Superior rating, the highest ranking, for its stellar performance at the JazzMad annual choral festival!
Junior Naomi Palmer says, “There is no chamber choir this year. Like, we are it…the majority of the choir is just brand new and we got the best ranking at JazzMad which is so crazy.”
The JazzMad festival took place from Feb. 11 to 12 at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Almost 100 choirs participated and sang in either the jazz choral music or madrigal music categories. The large number of choirs allowed the singers to experience a diverse range of performed pieces. This year, Cantamus sang in the madrigal track and performed Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus,” the renaissance piece, “Rise Up Festive Song” and Eric Whitacre’s contemporary piece, “Glow.”
After its performance, Cantamus worked with clinician and judiciary Dr. Joshua Palkki from Cal State Long Beach. This collaboration allowed the singers to build upon their singing techniques and improve for future performances, whether through dynamic or vocal tone. Naomi says her experience with the judiciary was super positive because he was very friendly and “literally got down on his knees and bowed to [the] choir director” because he was so impressed with how many first-year Cantamus singers there were.
Since the beginning of its season in September, the TPA choir has attended early morning practices twice a week. Leading up to the big performance, individual section practices were also held. On top of that, the pandemic also affected their numbers throughout the season, including their pianist, Herr Gray, which forced the students to be more flexible during unpredictable changes.
Yet, through their persistence, several improvements have been made since the beginning of the school year, which showed in their JazzMad performance. For example, the choir has been enhancing their diction and dynamic skills.“[W]hen we first performed in front of the school, nobody could understand what we were saying, which was a big problem,” Naomi says, “[a]nd [now] we have been working on our vowel sounds a lot more and just dynamics in general like getting louder and quieter based on what our choir director tells us.”
This achievement could not have been reached without the continual support and leadership of Mrs. Aimee Stewart, the director. Junior Hannah Frazier says, “I think [our Superior ranking shows] how lucky we are to have Mrs. Stewart, because I think if we had anybody else less dedicated, we would not have anybody to pull off a Superior.”
In the course of just two days, the choir experienced several exciting moments and made many memories. Cantamus attended a concert, sponsored by NAU, that included the university’s top choir, Shrine of the Ages, and Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble säje. Mrs. Stewart says that one of the highlights of the trip was at “the end of the concert on Friday night when everyone was standing, dancing, singing in unison and waving phones with flashlights on with säje!” The singers also took a pit-stop at the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Bellrock in Sedona, where they sang among the beautiful red rocks.
Because the JazzMad festival took place on a college campus, the choir was able to browse through different NAU buildings. Hannah says, “[A]part from it being a choir trip, I never really looked that much at the NAU campus, but we got to eat in the dining hall so it was also a little bit of a self-tour in that sense.”
Some Cantamus members also competed at the Regional Choir Festival on Jan. 21, where they performed solo auditions and sight-reading sections all in one night. Naomi says that on the way to the event “most of [them] carpooled and were just singing show tunes there.” After the Regional Choir festival, the singers had dinner with Ms. Stewart, which allowed them to catch up with her. The members who participated were seniors Caiyu Keonviengxay, Maeve Jastrzebski and Lilianna Casteneda and juniors Naomi, Hannah and Hannah Chadwick. Caiyu qualified for Regional Honor Choir and attended the event on Feb. 19 at Mcclintock High School. In terms of their upcoming showcases, Cantamus plans to sing the Ensemble part of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tempe Prep’s spring musical. Their final spring concert will be held on Wednesday, Apr. 27.