Vocalists from Canyon High School of Santa Clarita, paid a visit to Campolindo’s choir program on April 21 as part of a Northern California tour.

According to choir teacher Mark Roberts, taking choir students on the road is a common and critical part of the high school music experience.

“This is just a really common thing. Think about it this way: there’s one choir program, as opposed to 18 teachers who teach English and they can bounce things off one another. Choir, we don’t get to do that unless we go to a different school, so it’s our way of being able to do that,” Roberts explained.

“We’re working on preparing for our concert and the next concert is on May 18, so we’re in the process of refining them [the students] for that concert and it’s always nice to perform for an audience, whether or not it’s not as prepared as it’s going to be for your public performances. It’s still nice to sing for an audience and get some feedback along the way. So everything we sang will be piece we’re preparing for our spring concert,” Roberts added.

Senior Chloe Bouchy was among the Campolindo singers who worked with the visiting choir. “They came in during third period,” she said. “We sang a song that we weren’t that good at, but they were super supportive and we have hosted a couple of choirs before, but for me Canyon high school was really the first time that I felt like we were connected with one of the schools that was visiting us. They loved talking to us and it was really awesome. We were all pretty similar people so we got along well.”

Senior Kim Baxter met the Canyon students during her 5th period class. “It was really funny because at the end, we got to sing altogether the same song because they were performing on their tour one of the songs that performed earlier in the year, so we recognized the song,” said Baxter.

Both choirs sang “It Takes a Village” by Joan Syzmko, with Canyon’s director, Ariel Lambrecht-May, as the conductor.

Baxter added that Lambrecht-May talked about Canyon’s smaller but expanding choir program. “They’re sort of in the expansion process and getting more audition choirs and getting more people involved, and they’re really appreciative of CPAC because they don’t have one. They perform in the cafeteria, with their folding chairs and everything,” she said.

“It [Canyon’s program] has as much rigor as Campolindo. Although they have the same rigor and same kind of community, all they have is a cafeteria with a stage inside of it. They were super excited and complimenting our cafeteria, which is funny because I know people don’t really like the new renovation,” said Bouchy. “It kind of puts it into perspective to see these students super amazed by what we have and realize that not everyone has a performing arts center with chairs cushioned and all that.”

Roberts said that he plans to take his own students on tour in the future, though Canyon High School may not be one of their stops, as he has visited their campus in the past.