On Oct. 11, Aragon’s Chamber Choir sang with Scottish singer Susan Boyle at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco after the choir that was going to accompany her canceled.
Boyle’s rise to fame came when she placed second on Britain’s Got Talent during the 2008-2009 season. Boyle is currently on her first U.S. tour.
Senior and first year choir student Lexi Solis says, “It was a life changing experience. I’ve never met a celebrity, especially in the singing world.”
Chamber Choir teacher John Chen says, “The choir she was supposed to perform [with] couldn’t do it. Her manager emailed the San Mateo school district and asked if any choirs were ready and I thought we would be.”
Because of this, the Aragon Chamber Choir had little time to rehearse and memorize all of the pieces. “We worked really hard, and we were getting all stressed out. This is the biggest challenge I’ve had to face because that’s very short notice to memorize and catch onto things,” says Solis.
The chamber choir arrived in San Francisco at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday for dress rehearsal. They spent the afternoon rehearsing for a sold-out show at a theater with the capacity to hold 700 people.
Junior Regina Lisinker says, “A lot of people were feeling nervous because it was Susan Boyle at the Orpheum Theatre. A lot of people paid good money for those seats. I was so nervous going into it, but just being there and meeting her and meeting everybody and to be on stage with them was honestly one of the coolest experiences. Being on the stage where I’ve watched and seen so many different people and musicals was seriously one of the coolest moments of my life.”
“We did not know if [the performance] was going to be exactly like it was on paper. Going in, things were changed up and it was a hassle, but we ended up doing things [correctly],” Solis says.
The experience of performing with Susan Boyle contrasted with the choir’s previous performances, especially in regards to professionalism. “It was legitimately a professional experience. A lot of the instruction they gave us, we did not even rehearse it. There were a lot of mistakes because we had to learn it in five days, and even the dress rehearsal had a lot of mistakes. On stage everyone came through and everyone looked professional,” says Chen.
Chen comments on the impact of the experience, saying, “The most surreal experience for me was hearing these guys I teach everyday on a professional stage, especially [in] the first two months of school.”
