HCPS students ‘score’ in music; Best of the best perform together at concert

BROOKELYN PRIEBE Reporter

2023 All-County has already passed, but it’s not too late to celebrate the accomplishments of the students selected to participate.. According to choir teacher Katelyn Hemling, All-County is “an audition ensemble in Harford County, and so choir students - there’s band and orchestra as wellbut the choir students audition in October, the auditions happen at night at one of the other high schools.”

Hemling continues, “they have to go in front of the judges and sing an accompanied song. They usually have to sing something acapella and then they have to sing do a melodic sight reading, and a rhythmic sight reading and they can prepare ahead of time the song, but they don’t know what the sight reading is going to be when they get there.”

For All-County, the top students are selected to be a part of the ensemble and they only have three rehearsals before the concert. Hemling says, they have “one sectional rehearsal that is led by the high school teachers in the county, they have one rehearsal with their nighttime conductor, and then they have an all-day rehearsal, and then the concert is the next day”

Paramore to release This is Why

LILY CORCORAN Copy Editor

On Friday, Feb. 10, alternative rock band Paramore released their sixth album, This is Why. The LP is the band’s first album since 2017’s After Laughter. This is Why will be available on all streaming platforms.

Pistel says, “for the audition, I focused a lot on things like clapping out the rhythms of every piece I had to sing, since you are singing on your own during the audition. I also had to brush up on sight reading since it was another part of the audition.”

Freshman Payten Ivy says, “I practiced a lot with Mrs Hemling - the chorus teacher - I worked on the songs a lot that we had to audition for and sing but I didn't really work on sight reading.”

All-County students prepare with an all day rehearsal. It was followed by a performance on the evening of February 4.

Hemling

Senior Aidan Pistel says, “All-County was a great experience. It was a great way to bond with members of my choir who really took singing seriously. As well as a great way to meet members of other choirs who I would normally never have a chance to talk to.”

For some students, they were nervous about auditioning and performing, but Pistel says, “I was really nervous when I first walked in, but putting on a lot of fake confidence seemed to help. There were these rehearsal tracks that they sent out that would help you learn and memorize your part.”

Although he was nervous, he said “the best thing was becoming friends with some people who I barely knew. The worst though was probably the performance of our first song, it just felt very lackluster.”

Ivy says, “I was nervous auditioning but once I got in I was still pretty nervous but after practice I enjoyed it a lot.”

The album was announced via the band’s Instagram with the title track, “This is Why,” being released on Sept. 16, 2022. The next single, “The News,” was released on Dec. 8, 2022. The latest single, “C’est Comme Ça,” was dropped on Jan. 12. The band’s vocalist, Hayley Williams, said of the lead single, “It summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last three or four years.”

Freshman Grayson Whaley says his favorite of the three singles is “The News” because “it’s just more upbeat than the rest, more comparative to the older albums which [he likes].”

Whaley continues that he is, “not entirely sure what to expect” of Paramore’s new album; he “just hopes it’s more upbeat,” like the currently-released singles are. The freshman adds that he is “always excited for new music, though.”

According to the band, the al- bum “weaves in tendrils of rock ‘n’ roll’s past but lodges the band firmly back into the foreground of pop’s present.” This description references the switch in the band’s sound. Although most fans seemingly do not mind the shift in style, there is no doubt that many still love the band’s old pop-punk sound. Sophomore Elizabeth O’Brien says, “I can’t really compare them, but I like how their older music also had a bit more rock to it.”

According to The Atlantic, the band has undergone a “makeover.”

The band’s 2013 self-titled album, “was a masterful poprock reset, and on 2017’s After Laughter, the band experimented with shiny, happy synthesizers.”

O’Brien says they prefer Paramore’s older material since they “just liked a lot of their more angsty songs. Now [they] listen to Paramore for that middle school nostalgia.”

For anyone who is considering getting into Paramore, Whaley recommends the band’s music because, “[He] thinks it’s just good music [that] also has some deep meanings.” Sophomore Corrin Turner agrees with Whaley and says, “I do recommend that people listen to Paramore. It might not be for everyone, but I enjoy their music. It’s very catchy!”

The video game series The Last of Us was recently made into an HBO original TV show. The first episode premiered on Jan. 15 and weekly episodes have been released since.