After hours of preparation, Leonia High School students Dylan Gonzalez and Mattyar Alborzi performed in the Bergen County Select Chorus’s last concert of the season on January 12th at Westwood Regional High School in Bergen County, New Jersey.
The Bergen County Chorus is a select choir in New Jersey that allows choir students from grades 9 to 12 participate in a concert each year. This organization is run by the MECBI (Music Educators of Bergen County). The goal of the MECBI is to help enrich the musical knowledge of students and move them towards their passion of choral music. The audition process begins by filling out an online application. The audition requires students to sing a short song, and ascending and descending scales. Students from different schools in the Bergen County shared their passion and made incredible memories when performing in front of a large crowd filled with proud parents and music lovers.
All day rehearsals and long hours of music went into preparation for this performance. Dylan Gonzalez, a senior at Leonia High School, mentions that he has experience with honors choirs because he has participated in these since he was in middle school. He is passionate about music, and it was a bittersweet moment to perform his last concert. He says, “it’s extremely sad to leave because you make so many amazing friends and words just cannot describe the experience of the concert.” The choir sang six pieces in different languages, which took hours of rehearsing to perfect. Gonzalez states, “on weeknights the rehearsals were about five hours long and on weekends they were about nine hours long.” One of Dylan Gonzalez’s favorite things about performing with the select choruses is that he met many memorable people. “You make so many friends! For example, I did Region 1 chorus in eighth grade and I made amazing friends and five years later we were reunited.” He encourages students who enjoy singing to join these choirs because “it’s such an amazing experience that all music students need to experience.”
Sophomore Mattyar Alborzi was part of the Bergen County Choir for his first year joining an honors choir. Alborzi is part of the Leonia High School Chamber Choir and Men’s Chorus as well and his interest in music drew him to take the next step. He explains why he wanted to join this group: “I heard a lot of great things about how much fun it was and about how much you learn and I instantly grew curious. I was looking forward to meeting new people and singing with a choir that would challenge my singing ability.” Although the music was challenging and the rehearsing hours were long, Mattyar admits that he grew as a musician, and he plans to audition for honors choirs throughout the rest of his high school career. “[BCC] was really fun and it is a great opportunity to be able to sing with the best of Bergen County.” says Alborzi.