Five Hen Hud students, representing Hendrick Hudson High School and Blue Mountain Middle School, participated in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Honor Choirs in Cincinnati, Ohio over the recent winter break. The students performed alongside hundreds of outstanding singers from across the country in the spectacular Springer Auditorium within the Cincinnati Music Hall.

More than 4,000 students from all over the United States auditioned for the ACDA National Honor Choirs through an extensive recorded audition process. At the high school level, 600 students were ultimately selected to perform in two different choirs, and four of them were from Hendrick Hudson High School: seniors Amya Davis and Amy Wilkinson, junior Mia O’Malley, and sophomore Nava Minichino. At the middle school level, only 300 students were selected, and Blue Mountain eighth grader Aydan Akhtar was among them.

Upon their acceptance into the honor choirs, the students spent three months learning and preparing extremely challenging music with their teachers Erica Denler (HHHS) and Kimberly Dunkin (BMMS). Over the winter break, the students traveled to Cincinnati to take part in the ACDA Conference.

Once at the conference, the students embarked on four days of rehearsals with their guest conductors, upwards of eight to 10 hours a day. The guest conductors were Dr. Andrea Ramsey (Junior High/Middle School Honor Choir), Dr. Eugene Rogers from The University of Michigan, (Mixed Honor Choir), and Dr. Pearl Shangkuan from Calvin University (Treble Honor Choir).

The students performed music in English, Spanish, Latin, Arabic, Farsi, Ukrainian, Korean, Bulgarian, and isiXhosa, and the choirs performed in the magnificent Springer Auditorium in the Cincinnati Music Hall.