by Matthew Shepherd, '19
The Upper Arlington Vocal Music department hosted a mock audition for the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) competition on the night of March 7. The event consisted of the various choirs at Upper Arlington performing for two official OMEA judges. Specifically, each choir was given time to both sight read new songs and perform rehearsed ones and they were given scores on a three-point scale.
Senior Isabel Ali, a member of women’s glee, symphonic choir and vocal ensemble, performed in three separate time slots, one for each choir.
“Each choir had a time slot for their performance where they got a sight reading of a certain class level and were given two minutes to go over it and sing it as a choir,” Ali said, “Following that, we sang a few songs and the judges gave us feedback and a rating.”
In total, the event lasted just over three hours. In that time, the symphonic choir performed three songs, vocal ensemble sang four and men’s and women’s glee both sang two. The main purpose of this, according to sophomore Elowen Conley, a singer in women’s glee, was to prepare the students for the upcoming OMEA competition.
“The teachers wanted us to get a feel for an OMEA-type competition,” Conley said, “We were able to get great feedback and tips from the judges to help us mature our sound.”