Just ‘B Natural’

by Jillian Surla, editor-in-chief

Through February 29 to March 2, Fairhope students Eliana Steiniger, Rawlin Hoffman, Reuben Rockwell and Nicole Denham rehearsed and performed in Birmingham for the annual Alabama All-State Choral Festival. Both Denham and Hoffman have attended for six consecutive years, while Rockwell has for three and Steiniger two.

As soon as they arrived in Birmingham, they immediately started rehearsing.

“It was mostly rehearsal there because I didn’t really have much time to practice the music, but the week before I did go over the music,” Rockwell said, “But, for two and a half days, memorizing that music was really easy, just mainly because of the clinician.”

The chorus singers spent two of their three-day trip perfecting their songs. Steiniger said everyone had to commit the song to memory and follow the tempo.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun and it’s worth it in the end,” Steiniger said.

At 9:45 a.m. the next morning, the group left for the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex [BJCC] to prepare for the show. Rockwell said it was stressful, but being “with people that [he] know very well, it was just very comfortable.”

“I think overall it was a very enjoyable experience and the choir, especially this year, was very, very enjoyable and was mixed with a bunch of very, very, very talented singers and musicians,” Rockwell said.

The group agreed their clinician, Eric Barnum, was a major reason for their success. At one point during rehearsals, students kept asking him questions about his personal life, unintentionally keeping the group from returning to the hotel. So, when he asked if anyone had any final questions, the room erupted into unanimous no’s and disagreements.

“It was hilarious,” Rockwell said. “We were all so tired. It was the second day, so we had to be in rehearsal all day and we were all just trying to leave.”

The songs chosen were “Responsorials #1;” “Come to Me, My Love;” “Wanting Memories;” “The Rainbow;” “Kyrie;” “Sing, my Child” and “Alabama.” Every choir sang “Alabama” at the end of their set.

“This All State was really, really good. I really enjoyed the songs this year. They were very powerful pieces,” Steiniger said.

Steiniger said it was worth going through the rehearsals just to “become family even more so than we are from seeing each other every week.”

“After all that, you get to know the people who are in your group,” Steiniger said. “You get to room with them and go through some kind of ‘torture’ with the rehearsals, hard experiences with them that you’ll just laugh about later. You really get to know the people in the class from that experience.”

Even though it takes hard work and long hours, the experience was considered an honor to the students–one that they were happy to have the opportunity to experience.