Samantha Korecki qualifies for honors choir

Sophomore Samantha Korecki attended the MSVMA State Honors Choir performance with her peer George Fullerton. They both advanced from regionals to state and they just recently learned that they qualified for All-State, which is the highest level. Korecki sat down with reporter Morgan Womack to talk about her experience.

MW: How did the event take place with all of the different choirs?

SK: At regionals we all sang together for a couple pieces, then we split off into boys and girls. However, at state, there were three separate choirs that did not mix with each other. There was the TTBB (Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Bass 1, Bass 2), and I was in the SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), the mixed choir, which was basically guys and girls. I was a soprano one which is the highest voice part. Then there was an all women’s choir. Each of the three choirs performed 6 songs.

We all had to practice individually before state so we could get it memorized and when we actually went in, [the director] expected us to already know it so he would just like tweak little things and work on us, unifying our section.

MW: What were your favorite songs that you sang?

SK: I have two favorites: “Nyon Nyon” and “Stars.” “Nyon Nyon” was a really unconventional piece, it didn’t actually mean anything, it was all made up words. It was just really fun. And the tenors got to make like robot noises with their mouths, I got to say “nyon” really, really fast and at a high pitch high frequency and it was basically just this mashup of all these crazy noises, it was super cool. And then “Stars,” I thought it was so beautiful. I loved it so much. It was moving, and then we actually got to move off the risers.

MW: What was it like singing with the other students?

SK: At first it was a little intimidating because they’re all so good, like obviously we all made it to this point so we all deserve to be there, but I was around people who were either as good as me or better. At first I was a little freaked out because I wasn’t sure if I measured up but then after the first couple hours I made friends. One of the girls from East Kentwood from regionals I had made friends with and she happened to be in my same choir for state, so that was cool, I got to hang out with her. We actually sat next to each other so that was awesome too. After the first hour I started making friends with people around me and it was much much more relaxed. Then, it was just fun because I was making music with people who cared about it as much as I did.

MW: What was the best part of this whole experience?

SK: I think my favorite part was the culmination at the very end. Not just the performance but the hour leading up to the performance, just being able to buddy around with everyone and feel like we’re all done with rehearsal, we’re prepared. We were all just hanging out and talking about being excited and nervous and we all got to totally geek out about the music. Then we actually got to perform it and it was just so cool.

MW: What would you say to anybody looking into this?

SK: I think I definitely want to shout out to all my fellow choir people and tell them to do it next year because it’s such a great experience. It requires a little bit of a commitment but I would not trade it for anything. It was so interesting. And there’s so many fellow choir geeks in this school that would greatly benefit from it. I feel like almost anyone in the choirs I’ve been in would just love it.