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Following tradition, the choir students began the annual District Vocal Festival with a sing-along rendition of “America”, by Henry Carey, according choir director John Myszkowski.

Myszkowski said the students then went on to sing 7 other songs, including more recent songs “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith and “Counting Stars” by Ryan Tedder.

The performance, which took place at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 in the old high school gym, featured performances by middle school and high school students. Myszkowski said he was proud of the students and felt this began the year on a good note.

“I think the majority of the groups sang better than they ever had in rehearsal,” Myszkowski said. “Students especially were attentive and sang well. I thought it was a really successful start to the school year.”

Cynthia Scherer, high school and middle school choir accompanist, said she was impressed by the overall performance.

“I thought it was fabulous. It was fun. I thought the kids did a great job. I was very, very impressed,” Scherer said.

Scherer said she was proud of her own performance as accompanist at the concert. She said she felt confident due to plenty of practice in the weeks before the concert.

“I felt the most prepared I have felt for a concert in nine years,” Scherer said.

Freshman Veda Cole, a member of varsity choir, had a solo in “Stay With Me”. Cole and said she felt good about her singing and the singing of the group as a whole.

“Everyone worked together, making it [the concert] sound great,” Cole said.

Myszkowski said each choir at the festival had at least one song of its own, including the sixth grade choir. Myszkowski said the first and last pieces were sung by all choirs together.

Freshman Benjamin Romain, a member of varsity choir and Park Singers, said he was the soloist in “Counting Stars’”, performed by park singers.

“I was pretty nervous, but I think we did a pretty good job,” Romain said.

Scherer said the high school choirs will now focus on learning winter concert music and continue rehearsing “Ragtime”, the choir gala performance this February.

“Now we hit the books running,” Scherer said.

Scherer said one thing that especially impressed her about the District Choral Festival was the level of confidence the students displayed.

“They just sounded really confident,” Scherer said.