The Black and White

by Bridget Pouliot

“I remember sitting in class daydreaming about it; the same way someone might dream about winning the lottery,” sophomore Addison Eaton expressed. “Mrs. Soares told me that I should be confident about my audition, but honestly, even though I felt pretty good about what I had sung, it didn’t even really occur to me that I could get it.”

The American Choral Directors Association is a non-profit organization that works to support choral teachers and share choral music with schools and communities all over the country. Headquartered in Oklahoma, ACDA has been running and promoting choral music for over 60 years.

ACDA often holds conferences, workshops, and both regional and national performances. Last year, four Pilgrim High School students made it into the ACDA All-Eastern Honors Choirs. All-Eastern is held in the Northeast region of the U.S., and they performed in Providence. 

This year, two students from Pilgrim were accepted into one of the prestigious ACDA All-Nationals Honor Choirs.

Sophomore Allie Cameron explained, “It was a huge honor to be able to represent, sing with, and honor all of these amazing conductors and lyricists. Seeing their faces and reactions to it all made me incredibly proud and happy that I was part of the 300 girls trusted to bring all of these pieces to life.” She and Addison Eaton got to experience Dallas together as both of them were part of the All-Nationals Grade 8-10 Treble (female voices – soprano and alto) Choir.

“The best explanation I can give about what this meant to me is that it felt like all my dreams were coming true,” Eaton explained. As a performer, she has experience shining on many stages before, but she described the opportunity to perform at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas as one of the coolest experiences ever. “Like, I know that this doesn’t make us “world famous” or anything, but I spent a lot of the week imagining what little me would think if she saw what I was doing, and I just know that she wouldn’t be able to believe it.”

For their Nationals audition, the two girls had to sing part of “Measure Me, Sky” by Elaine Hagenberg. They also sang 30 seconds of a song of their choice and a scale depending on their vocal part (Cameron singing alto 2 and Eaton singing alto 1). Auditions were submitted on September 23rd, and on October 28th, the duo found out they were Dallas-bound. 

“For me, this experience was the chance to show that Rhode Island is just as good as any other state,” Cameron described. “There were some schools with nine or more kids who made it into the honor choir. And, while R.I. had three kids, we showed up, and we did that just as good as all the other kids.” 

Eaton and Cameron departed for Dallas on the 18th of March with their families and their chorus teacher, Mrs. Soares. They spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday rehearsing, getting to know other kids from around the country, and watching other choirs perform. They performed with the Grade 8-10 Treble Honors Choir on Saturday, March 22nd.

When asked about her favorite part of the week, Eaton described how the composer of “Measure Me, Sky” (their audition song and a piece they performed with the choir) came to their second day of rehearsals and listened to the treble chorus sing her song. “I kept on glancing over at her, and she had the biggest smile on her face. At the most passionate part, I looked up to see her brought to tears by it. Afterwards, she had a long conversation with us about how we did and how we could improve, and then she answered a bunch of our questions and generally just talked to us. Now, I’m a pretty emotional person, so it may not be surprising to hear that I could barely talk for 20 minutes after this encounter because I was trying so hard not to cry. Not only was it incredible to meet and find inspiration from her, but it also was the moment when the enormity of Nationals hit me. When I think about the best part of Nationals, this is easily the answer.”

“It was really refreshing to be around people who were also just as shocked that they were at a National event,” Cameron expressed. “No one really had a very large ego, and everyone was incredibly sweet and just as nervous as I was.”