Lambert High School has always deeply valued its chorus program, which has become one of the best in the state. This is evident with the success of Lambert’s chorus at both the Georgia Music Educators Association’s (GMEA) All State Chorus events and the Large Group Performance Evaluation (LGPE). The hard work and dedication of all the students, teachers and administrators involved shone through as the group achieved remarkable results and reached new levels of success.
Junior Chaithra Jogiraju represented Lambert at the highly prestigious All State Reading Chorus, a selective honor ensemble for talented vocal sight-readers in Georgia. Sight reading is when vocalists are presented with a piece of sheet music on the spot and perform it without any preparation. The event took place in Athens from January 31 to February 1, where students had to read over 70 pieces throughout the weekend and perform a selection of these pieces along with sheet music they had to sight read at a concert.
Lambert also excelled at GMEA’s All State Chorus. Unlike the All State Reading Chorus, the All State Chorus is for talented vocalists who excel in all areas of vocal performance. Students have to go through two rounds of auditions and compete against students from all over the state to be able to participate. This year, Lambert had 23 students go on to All State, breaking all previous school records. The selected students went on to attend a three-day clinic and perform in Athens, where they rehearsed with nationally recognized musicians and conductors.
“All State really challenged my music making abilities and taught me a lot about sight-reading and other techniques,” junior Advika Natarajan said. “It was also really great for us as a whole. I think we took almost one-third of the chorus.”
For singers to get up to this point, it requires a lot of effort. While the challenging auditions begin in November, training begins the moment the fall semester starts. The first audition requires participants to perform a solo, sing scales and complete three sight-reading exercises. The highest scorers then move on to the next round, where a part check determines whether they will be able to actually perform with the choruses. This second audition requires singers to memorize and perform excerpts from each music selection that would be presented at the event. The hard work done by the group was duly recognized. In fact, seniors Dia Patil, Tejas Kohli and Roger Wang were commended for the talent and commitment they showed during their five years as a part of chorus.
The group still had one major competitive performance left after their successes at the All State choruses. This was the GMEA’s Large Group Performance Evaluation (LGPE). LGPE is an annual event where ensembles, such as choruses, bands, and orchestras, perform a selection of music for a panel of judges, and their skills are evaluated based on national and state music standards. For LGPE, ensembles perform a minimum of two pieces, one from the approved list given by the GMEA and another is sight-reading and given on the spot. The GMEA assigns levels to the song list, from Class A (the most advanced) to Class D (beginner), and the group’s level determines the difficulty of the pieces. Lambert’s chorale and treble ensembles both performed at the Class A and B levels, respectively, adding another layer of challenges for the group.
“The preparation was very rigorous,” Natarajan noted. “Overall, both ensembles combined, we probably did 35 minutes of music total and we learned from January to March.”
The groups are judged on their tone, intonation, technique and overall performance. Each group performs for a panel of three judges, who assign ratings from superior, which is a score of one, to poor, which is a score of five. This year, Lambert’s choirs received superior ratings in both performance and sight-reading, closing out this year’s competitive performances with a bang.
From the rigorous auditions to the stellar performances, Lambert’s chorus students have shown what it takes to be among some of the best in the state. Mr. Wason’s excellent training allows for the vocalists to excel, not only individually, but as a group. As they open up auditions for the next year, the chorus is sure to continue pushing boundaries, inspiring future generations of musicians at Lambert and making their mark on the state’s fine arts community.
