Running a successful choir takes much more than just musical talent. It requires a strong foundation of planning, communicating and patience to develop each performance. With the Fall Concert approaching, entertainers at Woodbridge High offer a glimpse of the amount of effort and time it takes to prepare for the big night.

“I think leading up to the concert, there’s a lot of individual rehearsal time required,” advanced choir member Yuki Matsumura said.

Choir is a major commitment and it takes a lot of time to perfectly perform each piece. Students wanting to reach the full potential of their voices comes with a significant amount of repetition and effort. Although individual practice is necessary, another key factor to success is communication within choir.

“My favorite part is helping my fellow students as section leader to improve their rhythm, and reach out to them,” chamber singer Pranav Rao said.

Rao highlights the importance of not just individual effort, but everyone coming together as a group to sound melodious and as one to truly connect with fellow singers. The hard work and dedication is consistently shown throughout Woodbridge High’s choir, as they demonstrate what it looks like to work through hardships and certain difficulties that cause conflicts.

“We have to balance out with the demands of practicing outside of school, and that’s sometimes a challenge for us, and we like to work through it,” Rao said.

Amidst the fall concert season, the schedules of these entertainers may become very chaotic as they transition into the new school year. From juggling assignments from classes, to rehearsing individually andas an entire ensemble, it can get very overwhelming.

“Rehearsal times like in classes get kind of intense because everyone’s trying to cram a lot of music and a lot of notes into a short amount of time, and usually [the] fall concert is the most rushed of the year,” entertainer Annabelle Lee said.

Musicians at Woodbridge High explain how there is a lot more going on backstage than it may seem, and how important communication and patience is, especially during rehearsal times. With each day getting closer to the show, the choir begins to prioritize the fine-tuning of each piece, making sure that everybody sounds harmonious and confident with their performances.

The performers are able to tie the communication aspect to the quality aspect of each performance, allowing them to improve and understand what they need to work on.

“As we get closer to the concert, we practice in the PAC so that we’re projecting our voices accurately enough and we are also assigned singing assignments by our director who helps us refine our rhythms and parts for the song,” Rao said.

Each performance is not about perfection, but rather the different elements coming together through a process of practice and refining to create something beautiful.