On March 7 the Upper School Advanced Choral Ensemble (ACE) was rated “Division I – Superior” at the Illinois High School Association’s (IHSA) Music Solo and Ensemble Contest. Achieving this feat felt “spectacular,” junior Jordan Drisdell said. The competition was hosted across six different sites in Illinois, with over 350 schools competing. ACE ended with a 38/40 score overall. The average of the competition was 28/40, or a “Division III – Good” rating.
As a choir, ACE performed “Where the Light Begins,” a song written for choirs at the collegiate level. “The song isn’t hard, but the little nuances of it were hard to perfect,” junior Ayan Chawla said. Throughout the competition, both ensemble and solo acts alike performed for judges and were evaluated based on a one through five ranking across different categories. ACE lost points for one measure of a rhythmic spot, with fives in all other categories. “We’ve been perfecting the song for many months, and we were working on it for such a long time,” senior Louise Hall said.
Top solo performers included sophomore Uriel Castaneda in Jazz and Musical Theatre and junior Sisi Nikitas in the Italian Arias and Art Songs, both of whom received a “Division I – Superior” ranking. “Watching him react and see how proud he was of himself, I did cry,” Choral Music Teacher Christian Jackson said, following Castaneda’s rating. Junior Evan O’Connor entered in the Jazz and Musical Theatre Solo category, ranking “Division II – Excellent.” “Hard work, dedication, and friendship creates the strongest bonds—and Mr. Jackson,” O’Connor said.
Typically, Jackson is able to conduct the choir at competitions. ACE had never performed “Where the Light Begins” without being conducted before. “I was standing there, waiting for that moment. The guy said, ‘Oh, actually, you’re not gonna be able to conduct,’” Jackson said. “I laughed because I thought he was joking. And then I saw his face, and he was serious.” With their teacher unable to conduct, ACE singers were still able to perform the piece and help each other along while singing. “We were still able to do the song perfectly,” senior Nina Ariav said. Ariav stepped in to conduct the soprano section when Jackson was unable. Even though the performance didn’t go according to plan, the curveball ended up a turning point for Jackson. “In my career, this is the first time that I could say authentically that I know that the kids can do it without me,” Jackson said.
On April 16, ACE will perform an MX as well as a concert on their own later that day. A short 24 hours later, ACE will take to IHSA for April’s contest. Scores from March’s contest will be taken and compared to April’s results in front of similar sets of judges. The upcoming competition will take into account performances of full sets of music, around 10-15 minutes longer, rather than scores based on one song. “I think some of our other music might be better than what we did in March, which is really cool,” Jackson said. As ACE prepares for yet another IHSA Music and Ensemble Contest, Parker students can look forward to hearing two new songs not performed during the first semester, those songs being two of the set that ACE will perform in April.
