For the past two springs, Becket Wendell-Evans, a senior at Manitou Springs High School, attended the Colorado All State Choir Festival.
Wendell-Evans attended both years he was eligible along with his choir teacher and chaperone Abby Steen. “We’re only eligible to attend All-State choir as juniors and seniors. So I’ve attended all the years I’ve been eligible to do so,” Wendell-Evans said.
Abby Steen is the middle and high school choir teacher. Juniors and seniors start preparing for All State at the beginning of the school year. “Students must learn a set of skills that they will be tested on for example, scales, intervals, triads, rhythmic and melodic sight-reading, and more,” Steen said. “We start learning these skills on day one of school, because they must show mastery by the time they audition.”
In addition to preparation in class, Wendell-Evans also prepares outside of school time. “I had to memorize all this music, and I’ve spent hundreds of dollars in vocal lessons,” Wendell-Evans said.
Auditions are held at Liberty High School. “The auditions entail more than singing. Becket also had to memorize and perform scales and triads as well as some sight-reading,” Steen said. “This year, I feel he did particularly well. He was chosen to be a part of a ‘breakout’ group of singers.”
Students choose a solo song to sing at auditions. Their solo song has to be a choral or classical. “I sang a song called ‘My Lovely Celia’,” Wendell Evans said, “and for the second solo, I chose a song called ‘Sense from ‘My Dear’, which was a lot harder and had a higher range, but was a lot more fun to perform.”
Wendell-Evans said his favorite part of All State was the Balcony Sing. The Balcony Sing is a nationally recognized event. “People will come from quite literally, all over the country, to Denver, Colorado, to the Embassy Suites Hotel, and they will watch as choir kids flood this stairwell,” Wendell Evans said. “The acoustics of it are so perfect. When you look down at the stairwell to see people filming with their flash on it looks like stars.”
Although Wendell-Evans often thinks of choosing a path of singing for his future, he does not believe he will end up taking this path. Wendell-Evans still hopes to find a community choir and continue singing. “I would kill to have music in my life until the day I die,” Wendell-Evans said.
Wendell-Evans has taken choir all four years of high school. “I can very much hear his voice change through the years,” Steen said, “especially the last two years. His voice is becoming richer and more developed and I think he has a really good vocal range.”
Steen believed Wendell-Evans getting the opportunity to attend All State two years in a row is well deserved. “He’s been taking voice lessons for years, and they have clearly paid off,” Steen said.
