Ten choirs. One conductor. Many songs. This April, the Liberty Singers will be attending “Emerald City Sings,” an invitation-based Seattle festival for outstanding choirs. Liberty’s choirs have also attended a variety of other events throughout the months of February and March.
“Emerald City Sings!” is a Seattle-based festival that features both high school and college choirs from the Northwest. Ten choirs from around Washington and Oregon will be attending, ranging from local high school choirs to prestigious college choirs.
“This is Liberty’s first year attending “Emerald City Sings!”. It gives us the opportunity to experience repertoire that can only be performed by a very large choir, often accompanied by a symphonic orchestra,” choir teacher Robin Wood said.
The festival will be held in downtown Seattle’s St. James Cathedral from March 30 to April 2. The ensembles attending will sing together, but certain choirs have also been selected to perform individually.
“The choirs usually sing with the orchestra and the other choruses, but the cool thing is that this year, we also get to sing solo, during the middle of the festival,” junior Liberty Singer McKenzie Fysh said. “Only about three other choirs got asked to do that, so it’s pretty special.”
The ensembles will be conducted by world-renowned conductor Dr. René Clausen, who will be premiering his new 17-minute piece, The Festival Te Deum.
Last week, the jazz choir attended the Frank DeMiero Jazz Festival in Edmond, scoring superior on the adjudication scale.
“We also just finished our audition cycle for the 2016-2017 school year, and the choirs look as good as – or even better than – this year as far as outstanding voices,” Wood said. “We are losing quite a few seniors, however, so if students are interested in singing for our choirs, they should come on in and talk to me.”