“I just remember the energy in the room when we won the Best Ensemble award. It was electric. Everyone’s faces lit up and it was loud and it was awesome,” said senior and East Ensemble member Isaac Robinson.
Over spring break, East’s audition-based chorus class, East Ensemble, traveled to New Orleans to participate in the WorldStrides Heritage Festival, where they competed against a number of other high schools.
“It’s called an adjudication, which is when choirs come together in a certain place and all perform,” said senior and East Ensemble member Mitra Samei. “There are three judges who score you, and then one of the judges comes up on stage and gives notes… then there is an awards ceremony.”
Although East Ensemble was the smallest group at the event, they nonetheless were able to achieve the highest overall rating of “Gold,” as well as the Adjudicators’ Award and the Best Choir Award for their performance at the competition.
“There’s something really magical about singing in a group; it’s unlike anything else,” Samei said. “You’re in the middle of this range of voices, [from] really high sopranos to really low basses, all around you, harmonizing, and it’s like you can feel the vibrations in the air harmonizing with each other; it’s the coolest feeling ever.”
Outside of the main purpose for the visit of singing, the group participated in many other New Orleans activities during their time there. East Ensemble got to experience a private jazz concert at Preservation Hall, walk around the French Quarter, attend a masquerade ball where awards were announced and go on a steamboat tour, soaking in all of the opportunities that the city had to offer.
“It was so much fun. I improved a ton musically as a singer, and it was an amazing experience to get to go to New Orleans with all my friends. It was the highlight of my spring break,” Robinson said.
The joy of the experience and competition was only heightened by the bond of the East Ensemble members, something senior and group member Chess Whitsell described.
“It was so fun. I think also [that in] East Ensemble as a class… you build such strong connections [and] everyone in that class is best friends,” Whitsell said. “We all love each other, that’s why it was a lot of fun. It was just a bunch of friends getting to hang out, and do what we love, which is singing.”
Photo courtesy of Desiree Davis-Omburo
