For the first time in four years, seniors Saoirse O’Hair and Drew Speier will represent the school in the prestigious Senior Honor Choir. O’Hair and Spier will be performing their music at the concert in Richmond on Nov. 18.
The Senior Honor Choir is a highly selective program through the Virgina Music Educators Association that accepts only 120 seniors from all of Virgina. O’Hair and Speier are the first students from Stone Bridge High School to make the cut in almost four years.
“It’s very difficult to get in,” choir director Ms. Christine Tarrant said. “Some schools don’t have anybody get in. Some only have one [student], and we were very lucky to have two students get in, which is pretty amazing.”
The auditioners had to prepare a section from the song, “I Attempt Love’s Sickness”, and sight-read a piece through an online platform called OPUS, rather than auditioning in person.
“I think it was easier to do [it] online because you did get to redo your song,” O’Hair said. “And it was also in an environment you knew, so that made it a little easier.”
Though numerous resources were available to prepare, such as practice tracks available on the VMEA website and morning sessions with Mrs. Tarrant, there still were some challenges for Speier.
“I think it’s just making time, because I’m really busy right now, with college applications,” Speier said. “I just had to make time to rehearse and sing.”
Speier and O’Hair will be at the VMEA conference, working with 120 of the best senior vocalists in Virginia and professor Dr. Amanda Quist from the University of Miami, for three days.
“I’m hoping that we’re there and everyone kind of intuitively understands certain things that go on in a choir, so we can really make it a more musical and cool experience,” O’Hair said.
Before the announcement was made public on Instagram, Speier and O’Hair were told the results in their choir class, shocking both of them.
“I didn’t completely expect to make it in, I felt like there was a chance but I felt that there was a pretty good chance I did not make it either,” Speier said. “Hearing I made it was really exciting.”
The achievement took a great deal of dedication and commitment from both Speier and O’Hair, but O’Hair does not want that to detour future choir students from auditioning.
“Just keep practicing,” O’Hair said. “Getting from point A to point B is a hard process. It seems really far away and impossible, but you just have to keep moving forward and eventually you’ll get there.”
