Marco Ramirez ’27 was selected as the featured soloist for the CMEA Northern Region Music Festival’s Mixed Choir (honor choir), singing “More Waters Rising.”  Additionally, Neil Reddy ’28 was selected as the first chair (principal) of the bass section of the orchestra.  Marco, six other singers (Sarah Balog ’27, Gordon Beck ’26, Lilly Jacobson ’28, Annie O’Connor ’27, and Heather Voth ’29), and two instrumentalists (Neil on bass as well as Joonha Hong ’29 on violin) from our Upper School traveled to New Britain High School to participate in the festival after earning a spot in the ensembles with auditions back in November. 

All nine musicians will now have the opportunity to audition for the All-State Music Festival, with auditions occurring on February 7th at North Haven High School.

For the audition, Ramirez had to sing a classical song, sight-read, and do an arpeggio. Even though this is his fourth year of auditioning, he admitted he still gets a bit nervous. “The schools where you adution are so much bigger,” he said, “so even trying to find the room can be stressful.” Despite the stress, he received high scores and qualified for regionals. 

Following the first round of regionals, Ramirez learned that the next round included a solo opportunity. Working with his voice teacher, Ramirez felt ready and submitted his video. He learned at the competition that he was the only student who submitted a tape, so the organization decided to conduct another round of auditions. Since the first turnout was low, Ramirez expected to compete against only 15 students, but 35 others also participated. As he listened to the other students sing, the suspense was building; he acknowledged that they sounded strong. The judge listened intently to the singers and called Marco forward.

“I love singing,” Ramirez said. “A lot of it is about community, but the competitions are a way to prove my worth.”