Four upper school students have been selected from a pool of over a thousand applicants to perform with 346 other members of the All-National Honor Choir at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on Oct. 28.

Applicants for the All-National Honor Choir had to first audition last fall for a panel of judges for the Regional and State choirs to be considered for the National Choir.

“For regional choir auditions, [the students] have to go to another school and present their audition live. They get written feedback from the judge,” Jennifer Sandusky, music teacher and director of Bel Canto, said. “The auditions that they did for Regionals will place them at State, so some of them will go on to State, depending on how they scored. At that point, they’re accepted to do another audition for Nationals.”

The All-National Honor Choir is one of the four ensembles directed by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), an organization dedicated to advancing music education throughout the United States. Members of the All-National Honor Choir are chosen through a video audition and are judged on their musicality, performance skills, and their ability to effectively communicate the emotions of songs.

In Nashville, the All-National Honor Choir will be performing Randall Thompson’s The Last Words of David, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Suite de Lorca, Mozart’s Laudate Pueri, Mendelssohn’s Heilig, Stephen Paulus’ Pilgrim’s Hymn and Jonathan Dove’s Ring Out Wild Bells.

Seniors Sahana Narayanan and Gurutam Thockchom, junior Ashwin Rao and sophomore Krishna Bheda were notified about their acceptance to the All-National Honor Choir through email a few months after they submitted their applications.

“I had no idea what was going on, really. I just submitted the video and I was like, OK!” Gurutam said. “I didn’t hear back from them until they sent me an email.”

All four students were coached by both Sandusky and Susan Nace, music teacher and director of Cantilena. In the audition video for the National Choir, applicants have to demonstrate a variety of techniques and skills, including singing major and minor scales, chromatic scales, and sight reading and singing.

“Usually, I go through their songs with them and coach them. I listen and give suggestions,” Nace said. “Sometimes, I will guide them to a piece, saying this will work better for you- many times, they have their own private teachers and they have a portfolio of music that they might choose their piece from.”

Both Sandusky and Nace met with the students individually to discuss the video audition for Nationals.

“Ms. Nace, the director of Cantilena, was definitely a guiding force and a really great mentor- she was the one who helped me with my video and then my original audition as well,” Sahana said. “She’s definitely always been there; and just as a singer and a performer, she’s really just amazing.”

Harker’s All-National Honor Choir members account for four of the nine singers from California and will travel to Nashville with the National Concert Band, the National Jazz Ensemble, and the National Symphony Orchestra.