After months of diligent practice, Fresno Christian’s High School women’s ensemble and concert choir heads to their annual trip to perform at Anaheim’s Heritage Festival, April 12-14. After a thrilling day at Disneyland following the day of performance, choirs found out their hard work paid off, receiving more awards than anticipated.

After a lengthy, six-hour bus ride to Anaheim, both choirs performed at a local church where they were critiqued by a panel of three highly-educated judges. Choral director Susan Ainley led both groups alongside Accompanist Ben Certain. Ainley describes how it felt to receive three additional awards on their performance, an achievement that hadn’t been repeated since 2017.

“Every year we come home with a gold rating score and sometimes win a single trophy,” Ainley said. “In 2017, we swept the awards, so it was highly rewarding to achieve that again this year.”

A short clinic with one of the judges immediately followed their performance. The clinic consisted of the judge re-woking parts of the pieces performed where they felt needed more work or alterations.

After performing, students loaded back onto the bus and headed to the hotel for the night with anticipation for the next day. Early the next morning students rushed on the bus hoping to beat the lines and be the first into Disneyland Park. 

After navigating Disneyland through the rain, all 14 performance groups gathered for the awards ceremony hosted inside the park itself.  A choreographed performance of Disney characters singing and dancing started off the ceremony, followed by the grand entrance of Merlin the wizard.  

There were 14 choral groups total – most from large school divisions with substantial choral groups. As the ceremony proceeded, choral groups received their awards and rankings based off their performances. 

Fresno Christian’s Choir and Ensemble both received a Gold award for a score of 90 or higher, along with winning the choral sweepstakes for highest combined score. Ensemble won the Adjudicators award with a score of 95 or higher. They also won the award for highest score of the competition with a score of 97. 

Students loaded the bus the following morning, proud of their trophies and the hard work put into receiving them. 

To read more from The Feather visit: Promo: Drama prepares for Spring Musical or Downtown revitalization project spurs growth