A total of 10 Wayne State College students will attend the National Association of Teachers of Singing West Central Region Competition in Kearney on Nov. 3 and 4.
Sarah Farr, an associate professor of music, said the competition is for soloists.
“Singers prepare their solo repertoire,” she said. “Our two pianists, Shelly Armstrong and Angela Miller-Niles are performing with the students as well. Freshmen and sophomores will perform three pieces for each category they compete in, and juniors and seniors will be performing four pieces.”
She said that with 10 students competing in multiple categories of the competition, the students worked hard to memorize 100 pieces of music.
“It’s like district music but only solos and voice,” Farr said.
Friday, Nov. 3 will be the competition’s preliminary round, and Saturday, Nov. 4 will be where the semifinals and final rounds will take place.
“I’ll be judging categories… but categories my students aren’t in order to be impartial.” Farr said.
Farr said the voice competition is part of a nation-wide competition in the West Central region of the US, including Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. Normally, the competition rotates which state gets to host each year and Nebraska has been chosen as this year’s host.
According to competition information, students will sing for three judges in each round. Every student will be organized by grade level and will be graded against a rubric and all that score above a 90 average will advance to the semi-finals. In the finals, the top five singers in each category can advance to the Nationals for the competition.
