On Monday, March 21st, the TAPPS State Solo and Small Ensemble Competition took place at Houston Baptist University. CLHS had 44 vocal soloists travel down to HBU to perform, which is the most we’ve had in the last 10 years. Those 44 students performed their classical solo, from memory, in front of judge and then were given a rating from 1-5 (1 being classified as “superior”, 2 as “excellent”, 3 as “average”, 4 as “fair”, 5 as “poor"). Our students ended up earning 18 division “1” ratings, 17 division “2”, 7 division “3”, and 1 division “4”. We are extremely proud of all of them and of the hard work they put into learning these solos.
Doing a classical solo is completely different from singing as a part of the choir, and a lot of these students stepped out of their comfort zone, learned a difficult piece of music (many of them in a different language), and then performed it in front of a judge. Of the 44 soloists, only TWO had prior experience of doing an in-person solo contest because the last one was held in the spring of 2019. They did all of the learning process on their own and truly deserve all of the credit for their accomplishments.
The following students earned the highest rating of “Division 1 – Superior” on their solos with their exceptional performances:
- Eliza A. (Fr.)
- Kate A. (Fr.)
- Will A. (Sr.)
- Emma C. (Fr.)
- Isabel E. (Sr.)
- Lauryn G. (Jr.)
- Grace H.-L. (Sr.)
- Will K. (Sr.)
- Selena L. (Fr.)
- Lexi M. (Jr.)
- Ally M. (Sr.)
- Melissa O. (So.)
- Eliza S. (Sr.) - *has earned a "1" rating every year of contest
- Hailey S. (Jr.)
- Nathan V. (Sr.)
- Lucas W.-H. (Fr.)
- Ellie W. (Sr.)
- Cade W. (Fr.)
Points from these soloist's performances will be combined for the overall school score at the TAPPS 6A Vocal Music State Championships. Concordia won the TAPPS 6A Vocal Music State Championship in 2021 and has won the State Title 6 of the last 10 competitions.
Up next for the Concert Choir will be their 3rd Annual Spring Choral Concert at Trinity Klein Lutheran Church in Spring, TX on Saturday, March 26th at 7 pm. The concert will feature several pieces the group will perform at the TAPPS 6A Vocal Music State Championships April 8-9, 2022.
To hear some of the Choirs performance recordings or to learn more about Choir at Concordia, visit the Vocal Music homepage: www.sadernationtx.com/choir