Perry County School District 32
PERRYVILLE – Fall is a busy time for Perryville High School’s choir students, who are preparing for All-District and Quad State Honor Choir auditions.
Under the direction of Ms. Taylor Davis, choir members are practicing two pieces of music for the Missouri State High School Activities Association district competition – “A Poor Wayfaring Stranger” and “The Water Is Wide.” At the district-level competition, each student audition is a solo that is 90 seconds to 2 minutes in length from an approved list, performed with an accompaniment CD. “Students must also sight-read a piece of music they’ve never seen before,” Ms. Davis said.
At the same time, students are preparing for the Murray State University Quad State High School Honor Choir auditions. “Selected by audition, the 250 high school singers chosen from a five-state region gather on the Murray State campus for the festival, rehearsing and performing a major choral work,” Ms. Davis said. “They receive thousands of audition recordings for this event. PHS had 12 choir students selected for the Quad State Honor Choir last year, the most from any state.”
Students can try out for two parts – the alto and soprano, or tenor and bass. They are taped singing their chosen parts from Mozart’s “Missa Brevis in C Major.”
View video of rehearsals: