Junior Dominic Trez singing in a Watauga choir concert. Photo creds: Camryn Pruess, Watauga Yearbook.
Choir is one of the many opportunities in the arts that Watauga High School offers. There are 3 different choir classes students can participate in: Mixed, Treble, and Concert. Dominic Trez, a junior, is a singer who participates in Concert Choir, where he is challenged to sing to the best of his ability.
Trez has been in choir classes since he was in 8th grade. Throughout high school, he has sung tenor in the Concert Choir class. Although Trez enjoys singing, it wasn’t his first choice to sing in high school.
“My friends are the ones who inspired me to start singing,” said Trez. “But I didn't really have a choice to sing in high school because Mr. Winbush ‘drafted’ me into the Honors (or Concert) Choir my freshman year.”
Even though singing was not Trez’s idea, he has enjoyed and benefited from joining the Watauga Choir Department. He has experienced many different opportunities while also improving his vocal skills.
“I have benefitted from the Honors Choir by meeting new friends and traveling to choir competitions,” Trez explained. “I have learned new skills while learning how to sing together as a team.”
While singing in choir, Trez also sings outside of school on his own and with other groups of people. He sings as a hobby and even performs for audiences.
“I sing at my church, and I sing all the time on my own,” said Trez. “I enjoy learning how to sing and trying to be better.”
Given all of Trez’s singing experience, he was able to audition to sing at the Mars Hill Choir Festival. In the past few years, Watauga has had the privilege of choosing a few select people to go to Mars Hill, the longest-running choral festival in the Southeast. Even though his audition did not go as planned, he still succeeded in getting the opportunity to sing on this special occasion.
“I’m honestly surprised I made it into Mars Hill because I didn’t do very well in my audition,” Trez said. “They even asked me if I wanted to do the audition twice.”
Mars Hill was a two-day trip where the choir sang for six hours straight and only had a few breaks throughout the session.
“We sang in a choir of 350 people,” Trez said. “Even though it was taxing to sing for that long with few breaks, it was a really great experience.”
The Mars Hill Festival was a great opportunity for all choir singers who auditioned and were selected to participate. Students accepted into the festival choir can even receive bigger and better opportunities.
“If you join the choir, you get a $25,000 per year scholarship to Mars Hill,” Trez said.
With all of Trez’s amazing singing ability, being perfected in Concert Choir and in his own free time outside of school, he hopes to continue singing after high school, possibly even pursuing a career that involves music.
“I will always sing in my day-to-day life,” said Trez.“ I want to produce music or possibly be a songwriter when I get older.”
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