Baker High School Chamber Choir comes in first at Seattle Heritage Festival, qualifies for New York Concert Series
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, April 11th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY – During the recent Seattle Heritage Festival, April 4-7, The Baker High School Chamber Choir officially earned a gold/first place ranking. Not only does this mark a major achievement for the 28 students who performed, it’s also the first time the Baker High School Chamber Choir has participated in the festival since around 2003. Reflecting on the incredible performance, chamber choir director Tanner Denne said:
“It’s been really wonderful watching the program grow over the last few years and it’s just the perfect testament to all the hard work that students have been putting into it. Students in the community have been putting into our program to get it to this point again. It’s been a little bit of a recovery from the pandemic, but we’ve had some consistency here for the last four years coming out of the pandemic and there’s been a lot of growth with the choir program. They went up there and sang really well.”
So good was their singing that the Chamber Choir qualified to perform in the Elite Concert Series at Carnegie Hall in New York City. This new tour is scheduled for Spring 2025, though the choir may postpone their invitation in order to fundraise for such an extensive trip. According to Denne, the invitation carries over to successive years, with the Baker Chamber Choir welcome to participate during a later tour if needed.
For those who would like to hear the choir for themselves, a concert is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, at Baker High School.
