Becoming a good singer is no easy feat. From learning how to hold notes and maintaining breath control, to keeping up with the rhythm and retaining the right pitch, there are many difficult aspects to singing that people fail to realize. Still, these aspects are all skills senior Rahi Patel exceeds in, as her singing ability has led her to an exclusive music conference called All-States for the second year in a row.
The All-State Conference and Exhibition (All-States) is an annual gathering of nearly 500 of the state’s top student musicians. The musicians attend a variety of events, including musical sessions, concert hours, and spotlight concerts, as well as exclusive exhibit hall receptions. Attendees have the opportunity to perform band, orchestral, jazz, and choral works. This year, the conference will be held between March 21 to 22 in two locations: the DCU Convention Center in Worcester, MA, and the Symphony Hall in Boston, MA.
“It’s an opportunity to sing with other people within your community, which is nice, and it’s just really fun because you also get to see the band and orchestra play too,” Patel said. “It’s fun to see a lot of other people that are really dedicated to music.”
Patel will be performing with 100 other singers from across the state, with only one day to rehearse with the entire group. The musicians receive four to five pieces around a month before the rehearsal and are expected to practice these pieces on their own.
“Last year, I think I had about four songs, but one of them was just taught by word of mouth so they taught the song to us on the spot right there,” Patel said. “It was a little scary, but it wasn’t too bad. It was kind of fun because we got to make up our own harmonies.”
To get the opportunity to perform at All-States, Patel had to go through an extensive audition process. All WA musicians audition to get into the Districts Festival, an elite holiday district festival that lasts two days. Fifty percent of the top students who made it into Districts also received a recommendation to audition for All-States.
“[All-States] brings together the best musicians in the state to rehearse and perform with music directors who are at the top of their field,” St. George said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for those fortunate to participate.”
The All-State audition included scales, which is when the musician must play their instrument or sing notes up and down an octave in different keys. The other two portions of the audition included sight reading, the practice of reading and performing a piece that the performer has not seen or learned before, and performing a predetermined audition piece, which, for the choralists, was the piece “Music, When Soft Voices Die” by Roger Quilter.
“[For the sight reading section] you get about eight measures and you have to sing all the notes that you see. It’s difficult because you have to think and sing at the same time, and also get the rhythm right,” Patel said. “There’s a lot of things to do at one time.”
Patel found out that she got into All-States the following weekend as one of the only two choralists from Westford Academy. Although she had made All-States the year prior, Patel felt relieved when she found out she was selected, citing the pressure to get in again and the stressful audition process.
“During the audition, you feel like you’re by yourself just because at that point, there’s only one person left from your school,” Patel said. “And just auditioning in general can be stressful, so that was difficult. Your voice gets shaky and that happened to me so I almost thought I wasn’t going to make it in.”
Although Patel describes auditioning as a mostly individual-based process, she credits her music teacher, Karen St. George with a role in her success as well.
“[St. George] offers her help if we need it and we ran through the song a couple of times together before the audition, just to make sure we have a good handle on the notes and everything. She then told us what she thought,” Patel said.
St. George is extremely proud of Patel as Westford has only had about 55 students attend All-States for choir over the past 30 years, with the number of students going to All-States varying each year. The All States choir is comprised of about 100 singers from Massachusetts, with groups of 25 for each voice part.
“All-States is a huge accomplishment and I am so proud to have [Patel] represent Westford Academy this year in Symphony Hall in Boston,” St. George said. “The competition for this is fierce, and this is well-deserved.”
As her senior year comes to an end, Patel is excited to perform in All-States, reaping the results of all of her hard work toward performing a piece that truly resonates with her.
“At some point, I got a little burnt out from doing music but then, whenever I perform at All-States, for example, the degree of my love for music just increases by a lot,” Patel said. “Music is natural to me. I just naturally find it fun.”
