On Friday, Sept. 19, Jones College Prep’s tenor and bass choir section took a trip to Milwaukee to perform in the Sing Out! Tenor-Bass Festival.
The choir sang multiple songs and performed in front of choir directors and tenors and basses from all across the country. This opportunity gave the tenor and basses a chance to learn from a different music director, represent Jones and improve on their music knowledge.
This has been an annual event for middle and high school age tenor and bass students across the country, but only for select schools. This was the first year Jones was selected to attend the event. As soon as they arrived at the event, they were placed in different areas within the auditorium with students from different schools that sing similar vocal styles.
“It was pretty enjoyable and I did enjoy being around people with similar tones and voices, and hearing how we all sounded together was fun,” said Jayden Almo ‘26.
Despite the lack of knowledge about the program, the tenor basses still were able to bond with the different groups from the other schools and learn new music.
“Overall, I gave it an eight. Mostly because the experience went very well. I think I learned a lot. Very informational,very fun. We all sounded great.” said Lewis Lu ‘27.
The experience and the environment was new to the tenor basses but they still got to see what it is like to be a part of the larger group and work with that group to make their voices gel with each other on each song they were given. Even with different languages and different genres of music, they were still able to match pitch with each other.
“Honestly it was a pretty fun trip, you know, it wasn’t super great just because the travel was a bit long, and we were sitting for like four hours. I would have enjoyed it more if we could have moved around, but overall it was very enjoyable,” said Christopher Cruz Ponce ‘26.
While others had their own point of views and expectations of the trip, everybody seemed to enjoy it, even with the long drive from Chicago to Milwaukee.
The Monday they returned to school after the event, the tenor basses could possibly be seen performing at Jones the songs they learned and showcasing their musical knowledge that they picked up from the event in the choir room here at Jones.
“Putting the music together and hearing it all come together, I just like hearing how everything comes together, when we finally get it right, along with the excitement of finally getting it right.” said Almo.
As the trip concluded the tenor basses didn’t know much about the event, but after, they realized why schools before them liked the event so much. How the music really brought the schools together to sing as one big choir in front of the different choir directors and middle schoolers. To showcase what they have learned in such a short time period with a larger group compared to the smaller group of tenor basses here at Jones.
