Aerie, Arlington High School’s treble choir is preparing to compete at WorldStrides Heritage Festival in March 2025 located in Chicago, for the first time.
The choir previously attended competitions in California and Idaho where they earned a superior ranking. They are putting in the practice focusing on refining vocal skills like blend, tone, and dynamics, which all play a part in the scoring. In addition to competition, the choir members will also have the opportunity to experience Chicago’s cultural offerings, including attending an orchestra performance. The event allows the choir to both grow musically, as well as strengthen deep bonds with each other.
“We’re all really excited,” Paige Harvey-Baringer (‘25), Aerie’s secretary said. “It’s a great chance to improve on last year’s competition and hopefully do better. We’re really strong at sight-reading now, and it doesn’t take us long to learn our parts.”
The choir carefully selected which songs they would bring to the competition, and recognized music from across the world.
“We are taking three pieces to Chicago this year, and we’re focusing a lot on kind of branching out. So we have a Finnish song as well as a Latin song and an English song. So we have three different languages for our songs, and we’re branching out, we’re focusing on all of the different aspects,” Kayla Mullins (‘26) said. “And just trying to find all of those different areas and see what fits best, and just kind of learn those new techniques.”
The newer members of the choir are eager for both the new opportunity, and the skills that may come from it.
“I’m really excited just to, like, have the experience. I guess I’ve never been to a competition before, so I don’t really know what to expect,” Brooklyn Googe (‘27) said.
The purpose of this competition is to showcase what Aerie can do, and how to better the choir. The Chicago competition is a step up from their previous experiences, and teaches the members techniques that may be unfamiliar to them.
“I think it’ll make a huge difference from kind of moving up and continuing with choir because we’re learning a lot of things now that most kids don’t learn until they’re in college,” Mullins said.
