On Apr. 14, the NHS choir participated in a virtual concert at Tabor College. The choir sang two contrasting pieces; the Neighbors Chorus and Sing Me To Heaven as a group, and had other members participate in solos and small groups. After singing those two songs the NHS singing group received many awards. Since this competition was completely virtual, only the Newton Choraleers and Railaires participated in the event.

Being a completely virtual competition, all high schools in Kansas had the opportunity to participate in the event. Senior Jonah Schloneger mentions that they got the best score, which was a one rating. Schloneger says that he overall liked the competition although it was virtual.

“What I liked about that competition was that it even happened at all, considering the state of most activities right now. We got feedback telling us things we did well and things we could work on, and we got a one which is the best score you can get so that offered some validation. I wish they ranked every school rather than just offering a singular rating, so you can see where you really place with other schools, similar to a sport. I overall really missed being in person for the competition,” Schloneger said.

Many other students agreed with Schloneger’s point of view and would have liked to see their rankings compared to their competitors. On the other hand, freshman Evelyn Gaertner says she personally liked how they ranked the songs for competitions. 

“I love going to the contest and just singing in general because it gives me that giddy happy feeling, making me want to work harder and get better. I was singing two lullabies, All Through the Night and Land of Our Dreams. At the contest, we just sang our pieces to a camera, and then we sent it in and got our results back a little later. I think the way they scored the performances were fine I just personally was a little upset because I really wanted a better rating,” Gaertner said.

Junior Sarah Georgiou says she enjoyed the competition because there were not very many participants and the students could redo the recording if anything went wrong. Georgiou also says that they were required to wear masks while singing which some singers found very annoying. 

“I liked competing because there weren’t as many people and if the recording got messed up, then we were able to redo it. My experience went really well, people were really nice and they also had a Starbucks inside which was great,” Georgiou said. “I personally thought Newton overall did excellent, due to the fact that we only practiced one time. At the competition, we sang in front of a camera and sang with masks on which is very difficult.”

Overall most of the students say they liked competing, but Schloneger mentions that he would have liked to see more of his peers participating so that NHS as a whole could win even more awards.

“I do like competing, and I wish our ensembles did more of it, because we would win a lot,” Schloneger said.