Over the past month, many choir students have been shown dedication by giving up their lunch time, free time and even arriving at school early. Why so much hard work? It’s All-Suburban Honor Choir season.

Every year around this time, hundreds of students in the St. Louis area audition for the St. Louis Suburban Honor Choirs. There are two types of choirs that students may be selected for based on voice parts: SSA (soprano-alto) or SATB (soprano-alto-tenor-bass). After auditioning for All-Suburban, students may also learn they are able to audition for All-State Choir, a selective choir for juniors and seniors that you must earn an audition for through your initial audition. This year, a whopping 14 Liberty students made it into All-Suburban Choir, four of which were also selected to audition for All-State Choir. 

The auditions for All-Suburban Choir were Homecoming weekend, further showing their dedication to their passion. Prior to auditions, students worked with choir director Carter Datz to pick a solo to perform, and afterwards rehearsed with him weekly up until the audition. 

“The one-on-one rehearsal process was really helpful because I didn’t feel any pressure of having any other people with me. It was definitely a fun experience,” Cohen Roach (9) said. “I had never done something like that before, working one-on-one, but he [Mr. Datz] helped us in more ways than I thought he would.” 

Following weeks of rehearsal and sight-reading practice, auditions finally arrived and students felt a range of emotions.

“I was really nervous. I was confident in my solo, but the sight reading was a little nerve-wracking because it could be in different time signatures,” Roach recalls. “But it ended up working out.” 

“I was nervous, but I was also really excited because doing this every year has been a great experience for me,” Ellie Force (11) said. “My friends hyped me up and I felt confident in myself for the audition.” 

The All-Suburban Choir students will be performing with their selective choirs on Nov. 8 at Pattonville High School.