This school year has brought great success for the choir program at Cleveland, as the A‘Choir was selected to perform at the OSAA State Choir Championships, and the weekend of April 28 and 29, the solo and ensemble championship took place.

Choir student Lucy Ferguson says, “It’s Cleveland’s first time competing in the ensemble state competition since before the pandemic.”

Ferguson took first place in the Alto Solo voice category of the competition, as well as first place in the duet category with partner Tonantzin Ramirez. Cleveland’s treble ensemble also placed seventh in the championship, and Olivia Carlson took 10th place in the soprano solo voice category.

“I think it’s the first time we’ve brought home a first place for Cleveland in at least the past five years,” says Ferguson. “It was a really good time and we’re really lucky to have the program we have.”

The A’Choir participated in the next leg of the state choir championships on May 6, and placed 10th out of 24 choirs. Lincoln placed third and Grant fifth, for other PIL schools competing. South Salem was crowned the state champion.
A’Choir is Cleveland’s large, audition-only OSAA ensemble that is currently made up of 30 students. They recently competed in the district competition and qualified to participate in state.

Prior to state, choir director Allison Cottrell said, “We’ve been prepping for a while now and feel very prepared and excited.”

The group performed four pieces, two of which were sung in Portuguese and Italian.

“It’s been fun, engaging, and challenging for them to learn all the specific literature and different styles of language, and they’re very excited to show off the work they’ve been doing,” Cottrell said.

This competition is a huge accomplishment for A’Choir, as they will be one of only two Treble choirs at the event. Their performance slot was at 3:20 p.m. in Corvallis at the LaSells Stewart Center.

“We would love to see folks there to listen and cheer for us and the other two PPS schools!” said Cotrell, prior to the event.

The choir program will be performing one last time this year when they host two nights of the annual Springtasia show May 17-18 in the auditorium. The shows start at 7 p.m. Entrance is a suggested donation.

The show features the choirs singing and dancing to well known songs from the stage, screen and beyond interwoven between awards and specialty acts sung by soloists and small groups.