Senior Oliver Etherington qualified for his last high school Central Oklahoma Choral Directors Association regional honor choir. COCDA is a regional honor choir for high school students to qualify and then perform a clinic.
Etherington qualified for COCDA for all four years of high school. He was encouraged to audition his freshman year by his former choir director Dr. Jennifer Gillis.
“[I] decided to audition freshman because Dr. Gillis supported and pushed me,” Etherington said.
He has grown from his first year auditioning, feeling the nerves to feeling confident in his audition senior year.
The honor choir performed “Come to the Woods” by Jake Runestad, “Father Thunder” by Laura Jekabsone and “The Prow” by Mathew Lyon Hazzard.
“Come to the Woods was my favorite because the song was long; the rhythms were tricky,” Etherington said.
The clinician was Alan Zabriskie. Etherington enjoyed working with him because he “worked well with the students.”
A highlight from Etherington’s experience this year was having dinner with Choir teacher Johnny Mitchell at Texas Roadhouse and the sound of the music during practice.
“I was very excited with the honor choir, happy to work with people who cared about the music and themselves,” Etherington said.
