St. Louis All-Suburban Choir Members of the 2024-25 season Anthony Zhao (12), Norah Murphy (12) and graduated members Cooper Mortensen and Natalie Shellhaas stand in the rehearsal room before their concert. Five students made the All-Suburban choir this year. “[Being on All-Suburban] gives me more content, and I definitely have to dedicate at least four or five hours every week outside of school to practice and learn more music,” Zhao said. “So it definitely makes music a bigger part of my life.”

Velvet Majumdar (9), Molo Christ (11), Chanuth Batagoda (11), Norah Murphy (12) and Anthony Zhao (12) made the St. Louis All-Suburban team from their auditions Oct. 4 at Maplewood Richmond Heights High School. The five students auditioned against 200 other high school choir students for a limited number of spots. 

For every audition, students were to prepare a 30-60 second measure of a song of their choice in a choir book, and then sight read a song. Christ, an alto for her choir, prepared an Italian song. 

“[When you arrive, Ms. Grollman] gives you a number, you put it on, and that’s the number they call for when you have to audition. You can warm up outside or you can go straight to the line, and when you’re ready, they’ll call your name. You go in, and you are given judges that are turned backwards so you don’t get to face them, and you sing your part. Then once you’re done, you can leave.”

Zhao, a four-time All-Suburban member, also prepared an Italian song, “Quella Fiamma,” and rehearsed the Italian pronunciation. Although the audition process is short, it requires much preparation. 

“You workshop the notes [of the song] one by one, get the words, make sure you’re pronouncing them correctly,” Zhao said, a four-time All-Suburban member. “You have to go through Italian and Latin words and sound them out phonetically to make sure you’re getting them right, because the whole choir has to sound the same. We [have to then] keep working on the emotion [of the song] instead of the basic notes and words.”

All-Suburban practices have not yet begun, but they are expected to occur once or twice each month. Each practice is around three hours, and the members are to take home and learn several songs before returning to the next practice. Majumdar, a soprano and a first-time All-Suburban auditioner, looks forward to the first practice and reflects on what she has already learned from being in a choir. 

“[I have learned that] it’s really important to listen to other people rather than just doing what you feel is right, but you should still do what you think is right,” Majumdar said. “Overall, [I enjoy] just being there with people, it’s really comforting, and we get to sing the same songs with the same heart.”