On Saturday, November 9th, 10 very talented musicians from Richards High
School took part in the annual ILMEA District Choir and Band Festival. 9 choir members, the most to have ever attended the district festival from our school, and 1 band member – Joshua Brown. The choir members are: Alyssa Welch, ChaBria Riley, Emerey Ruzencevs, Ezekiel Munoz, Fabian Diaz, Jacie Strelow, Kylie Schaefer, Maurice Stevens Jr and Orla Page.
These students, along with choir director Josh Hammann, began their day at Elmhurst University very early attending workshops, rehearsals and working with some of the top directors in the area. Prior to the festival, there was lots of hard work required to make the District One Choir. Challenging excerpts from the songs performed on this day were chosen for students to record and submit to be selected. Band member, Josh Brown, says that the process was “really challenging”. However, it “paid off in the end”.
The choir performance that took place at the festival was a mesmerizing mix of hundreds of voices from around the area – amazing ones at that. According to choir member Ezekiel Munoz, the “wall of sound we created full of harmonies and talent” was something to be very grateful to have experienced. This day was absolutely amazing for all the students involved. The magic of performing with hundreds of other very talented musicians that are all on correct pitch and have the ability to quickly pick up on the directors instructions is remarkable. Choir member MJ Stevens remarks on this, as the experience “opened [his] heart and eyes to take singing more seriously and to keep working hard to get better at it”.
The District One ILMEA Festival is something to be extremely proud of, and something that will hopefully continue to inspire music students to push themselves in the coming years. ILMEA District One is the most competitive and challenging to qualify for the state, and by nine choir members making district this year, Richards has made school musical history.
