{"id":801684,"date":"2019-11-23T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=374878"},"modified":"2019-11-24T17:11:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T00:11:23","slug":"6-summit-high-students-selected-for-national-honor-choir-performance-at-carnegie-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/6-summit-high-students-selected-for-national-honor-choir-performance-at-carnegie-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Summit High students selected for national honor choir performance at Carnegie Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Six Summit High School students have been selected to perform at Carnegie Hall in February. Pictured from left are Zachary Merriman, Isabela Imamura, Soledad Borrego, Mikaela Clark, Ellyn Lew. Not pictured is Thomas Francis.<\/strong>
Deepan Dutta \/ ddutta@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Six Summit High School students have been selected to attend the High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall in New York City, a distinguished honor bestowed on only 400 high school students across the country out of 7,000 applications. <\/p>\n

The honor is remarkable, considering six of the selected students come from a little resort community in the mountains. While some of the students are able to pay for the trip, a few of them are looking for a little help from the community to fund their way to the big stage in New York City.<\/p>\n

The six Summit students are Thomas Francis, Isabela Imamura from Dillon, Soledad Borrego from Breckenridge, Mikaela Clark from Summit Cove, Ellyn Lew from Breckenridge and Zachary Merriman from Summit Cove. Imamura and Merriman have been selected for the honor choir before, but this will be the first trip for the four others.<\/p>\n

These six students had to submit their own audition tape, competing with thousands of other students across the country. Most sang an Italian aria, \u201cCaro Mia Ben,\u201d for their audition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to learn an Italian aria, which is a pretty big deal, as most people don\u2019t learn arias until college,\u201d Summit High School Choir Director Caroline Hesford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cVocal resonance is well displayed through an Italian aria,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt involves a lot of technique stuff that choirs look for. They can really see the true extent of your vocal ability before being accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

After having performed their best, professional-sounding audition tapes, the students are thrilled to have been selected for the national honor choir. <\/p>\n

Imamura, a senior who is applying to colleges for music theater on the East Coast, said she has been singing ever since elementary school. Having been selected for the honor choir before, she knows the electric excitement that comes with singing at the hallowed and historic Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly such a big honor,\u201d Imamura said. \u201cSinging at Carnegie Hall was truly spectacular. It is so beautiful. The sound travels all around the place \u2014 truly an experience we won\u2019t be able to experience again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borrego, a senior who intends to study indigenous studies or music and theater in college, also has been singing since elementary school but took a break and played in the school band before realizing how much she missed choir. She said that hearing she will be singing at Carnegie Hall was a thrill of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really excited when I found out I got in,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cI was so happy that I called my best friend right away. I think Carnegie Hall will be magical, as well as New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the selected students have never been to New York City before, making the trip all the more special.<\/p>\n

Clark, a sophomore in the choir for the first time, has been active in the music theater scene in Summit County, having performed in recent local productions of \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors,\u201d \u201cSweeney Todd,\u201d \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast.\u201d She said she was very enthused about the trip and the possibility of meeting all the other great high school singers across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s so cool that we have six kids from our small county going, since there aren\u2019t a whole lot of people who do musical theater here,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be great to meet people who sing like me. And getting to go to New York and getting to perform in such a prestigious hall space is so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lew, a junior who has been singing with the choir for three years, said that aside from the honor of performing with the national honor choir, it also helps boost future prospects in music should the students choose to make it a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis can solidify whether I want to do music as a career or not,\u201d Lew said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be working with some of the most prestigious directors in the country. No doubt it will it be a real cool experience and will determine for me whether this is what I want to do as a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merriman, a senior who will be attending college at the University of Colorado to study music recording, is ecstatic about getting to perform at Carnegie Hall again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Merriman said. \u201cI made it last year, and it was a great time. It was really life changing. I saw a lot of things I was able to cross off my bucket list, like a yacht ride around the harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty. I found a lot of people who were as passionate about music as I am, and that was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of the students agreed that music, generally, has been a lifesaver. For some of them, music has been an escape from tumultuous childhoods and from day-to-day pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, personally, music has always been an outlet to express myself and feel really comfortable in my own skin,\u201d Imamura said. \u201cI deal with a lot of anxiety, so it\u2019s really been a way to get out of that headspace and truly feel like myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI dealt with a lot of stuff as a kid, and I didn\u2019t really have a way to get out of my brain,\u201d Lew said. \u201cMusic is a great way to do that. It also helps me with creativity, like writing music, and helped me find some of my best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic has been life changing for me,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cIt\u2019s been like a home. Growing up, my home life was very isolating, but with music I found a place to cry and lean on. Music is just so loving and unites different people. I hope I always do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, I had a bit of a rough home life, so I had trouble focusing on any one thing,\u201d Clark said. \u201cMusic is something I am truly passionate about now, it has gone through so many aspects of my life. There are also so many academic aspects to music as well as a social element and calming effect that lets me be in tune with myself. I want to do it for the rest of my life, I wouldn\u2019t give it up for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic has brought me out of the darkest corners in life,\u201d Merriman said. \u201cI\u2019ve always had issues with mental health, but music has given me an outlet both for me to create and give to other people, to hopefully support them through their troubled times.\u201d<\/p>\n

While all are thrilled about the opportunity, some need a little financial help to get to Carnegie. The trip costs $2,500 for each student, including lodging and airfare. Hesford said the choir will be doing fundraisers and odd jobs for the next month to raise the money. The students hope the community can help make up the shortfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to get that financial support, we would not only be representing the high school but Summit as a whole, and we\u2019ll make it proud,\u201d Lew said. \u201cIt is such a tremendous opportunity, especially with how arts are a bit under appreciated in a small community like this. To have six students from the only high school here be accepted is pretty incredible, and it would help further music education and create a path for other students to do big things like this.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hesford said the students have to pay their balances by Dec. 30. The trip is from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 with the Carnegie Hall performance on the night of Feb. 2. To help contribute to the student\u2019s trip funds, call Hesford at 970-368-1115.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six Summit High School students have been selected to perform at Carnegie Hall in February. Pictured from left are Zachary Merriman, Isabela Imamura, Soledad Borrego, Mikaela Clark, Ellyn Lew. Not pictured is Thomas Francis.Deepan Dutta \/ ddutta@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 Six Summit High School students have been selected to attend the High School Honors Performance Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 22:44:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":801706,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801684\/revisions\/801706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}