Senior Hannah O’Grady, voice

How did you prepare for the audition and what was the audition process like?

“To prepare, MMEA has practice tracks on their website where you can learn your part alone, and slowly add in the other parts. The audition itself is your singing with three other voice parts, so I worked on that to get the parts down, and then I started just trying to add more of the expression. Then Ms. Goliger let me and Maria, who is the other chorus student in All-States, stay after and run through it together. That was really nice because we got to have direct feedback, and we got to sing together, which I think gives you a better feel for the song than you would with the practice track.”

How long have you been singing? 

“I joined chorus in the fourth grade and I kind of just did it for fun, but I started to get more interested in music in middle school with Mrs. Getchell. I tried out for Select Chorus and Girls’ Chorus, and I started taking voice lessons in seventh grade.”

What are you looking forward to at All-States?

“I’m really excited that we’re hopefully going to be able to have an [in-person] concert, because getting to spend time with and make music with such a large community is really fun. I think we can all appreciate that a little bit more now, since we’ve spent so much time away from it.”

Is there anything you hope to gain from your experience?

“I think meeting new people is always fun. I remember being really nervous my sophomore year because I didn’t really know anyone, but you end up meeting a lot of people who share those same interests and passions. It’s such a fun way to spend the day.”

What was your past experience at All-States like?

“My sophomore year, it was the traditional two-day trip; you go into Boston and stay there overnight. That was really fun. I’d never spent that much time rehearsing. It was pretty much 48 hours of music, music, music, which was really fun. Then last year, because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to go in person. But they were still able to do a virtual concert, which was pretty fun. We met on Zoom to rehearse and then sent in recordings, and they edited them together for a virtual choir.”