Sisters salutes...

The Sisters High School Concert Choir exceeded all expectations at the Central Oregon District Choir Festival last Tuesday.

"The choir started the school year with the successful musical 'Cinderella'," said Choir Director Rick Johnson.

"We then focused our energy on our Holiday Showcase performance.

In January, we realized that we were behind in starting our festival music due to the time we spent on the musical.

However, we were prepared to dig in and do our best.

Due to many circumstances, there is not a state qualifying Sky Em League Choir Festival.

After discussing several festival possibilities with the students, we decided to attend the Central Oregon Choir Festival - which is a festival for another OSAA league.

Our goal was to perform our best at the festival, work with the festival college adjudicators, and share our love of music with the other Central Oregon high school choir programs."

The students worked incredibly hard and put on the performance of their lifetimes last Tuesday. The adjudicators, festival audience members, and high school choir students from all over Central Oregon flooded the Sisters choir students with compliments.

"Leaving the festival, the kids were incredibly enthused," Johnson said. "Our goals were met. Wednesday morning, I received the overall festival scores and my jaw dropped. The first through third place winners of the Central Oregon Festival were listed - all 5A schools. I'm so proud to announce that our 4A Sisters High School Concert Choir achieved a higher overall score (by 5 points) than the first-place (5A) choir at the festival!"

Johnson said, "Thank you for all of your support of the choir kids throughout the year. Please congratulate the awesome students in the Sisters Concert Choir when you see them. They are truly spectacular performers."

The Sisters choirs look forward to performing again for the May 23 Choir Pop Show at Sisters High School.