All State Chorus Performs
Around New Jersey

By Lauren Fazzio

Five students from Hanover Park High School who were recently accepted into the prestigious New Jersey All State Chorus performed at events around the state this November.

Hanover Park seniors Chris Debiak, Billy Huyler, Anthony Marchitto, and Darren Siu, and junior Samantha Gordon were among the almost four hundred students singing at the New Jersey Teacher’s Convention in Atlantic City on November 5, and at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on November 14.

“There were the 300 people in the choir, plus the orchestra and the audience, and we were all there celebrating music,” says Gordon.

At both performances, students sang Gospel music, “German Requiem” by Brahms, and native Australian music including a song called “Panda Chant.” But their favorites, collectively, were “Pseudo-yoik,” a fake Finnish song that parodies Lappish music, and a version of “Kyrie” arranged for victims of 9/11.

To prepare for these widely -attended performances, students in the All State Chorus meet every couple of months and also rehearse their parts as recorded online. But according to each Hanover Park student involved, the high school’s choir, under the direction of teacher Helen Britez, has been preparing them for years.

“Mrs. Britez would just work with us individually for weeks,” says Gordon. “In class we would always sing the required scales and she would give us time to just audition for her.”

“The things that Mrs. Britez says during choir is sort of what they say at All State,” explains Siu. “Especially techniques. It’s not new at All State.”

Huyler adds, “Performing advanced repertoire and working with advanced singers and an advanced conductor prepares you to sing with an even more advanced group of people throughout the entire state.” Huyler, who plans to follow in Britez’s footsteps and become a choir teacher himself, serves as this year’s Hanover Park Choir vice president.

The influence Hanover Park’s choir has had on these students, however, extends far past their acceptance into All State. “I feel like a much better musician,” says Marchitto, who has been accepted into Nationals. “Coming from middle school and then to this, it’s completely different. It’s just changed the way I sing.”

Siu, who didn’t even sing before his freshman year, now ranks tenth in the state. “I was always involved in band, but doing choir made a singer out of me,” he says.

For Gordon, choir helped shape her both as a singer and as a person. “Before I came into choir, I was a lot quieter,” she explains. “I just wasn’t willing to sing in front of everyone. But now knowing there are people here who want to hear you sing, supporting you; that’s the thing about this choir. They just want to come to make music.”

Participating in both the Hanover Park Choir and the All State Chorus decided Huyler’s future career. “That in and of itself speaks volumes,” he says. “It opened up a passion that I never knew I had. We have something really special here. It’s like a family.”

The choir will perform as part of Hanover Park’s holiday concert at the school on Tuesday, December 21, and the community is welcome to attend.