If San Luis Obispo High School students are interested in joining a choir that is outside SLOHS, they are in luck. Four students at SLOHS are already enrolled in this choir, which is organized by the Central Coast Youth Chorus, more commonly known as CCYC. 

  Students get professional experience with singing and get develop music and teamwork skills, as well as making friends with people across the county, ranging from Creston to Orcutt.

   Expressions interviewed some of these students to learn a little bit more about the organization.

Expressions: Can you explain what the organization is?

Sophomore Fiona Cross: Basically, it’s an organization where a group of girls get together every week on Tuesdays, and we learn musical pieces and practice our music for about two hours a week.  

Sophomore Anessa Alvarado: Central Coast Youth Chorus is about developing your voice throughout many years, and there’s different groups that you have to audition for. It’s just a really great, comfortable space and [we] learn a lot about music.

Freshman Isabella Nino de Rivera: CCYC is an organization where kids from all over the county come together with amazing directors and parent volunteers to develop our musicianship and make friendships too. We work with passionate people to make music together.

Expressions: Are you in the school choir as well? If so, which one do you prefer? If not, why not?

Cross: [I’m not in the school choir] because it’s too much of a time commitment. 

Alvarado: [I’m not in the school choir because] I feel like the school choir is not taken as seriously, you are with people that you might not connect with or have problems with, and the people we work with are very experienced. 

Nino de Rivera: I’m not in the school choir. I don’t have much free space in my schedule and it would be too much of a time commitment for me to make school choir concerts and outside rehearsals, and then doing CCYC after school.

Expressions: How often do you perform? Where? When? How many people are you performing in front of?

Cross: We usually have concerts seasonally, so a fall concert, and a spring concert. [We perform] at the United Methodist Church. [The shows] normally start at 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays [and Sundays]. Parents come and friends come too.  

Alvarado: We have some higher level individual concerts, probably four per season, but if you are in the low groups, you only have one per season. Most of the time, all of our seating is full. [We perform] at the United Methodist church, and the concerts go from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Nino de Rivera: In our group, we have at least two per season. This season, [our group is] having four. It also depends on if we’re doing special events or collaborating with other choirs, like Cal Poly’s choirs, Master Chorale or Vocal Arts, or even OperaSLO. Our regular concerts are in mid-December and mid-May, at the United Methodist Church by Cal Poly, but we go to the PAC every winter to perform in their bigger theater.

Expressions: How long have you been involved with this organization?

Cross: I have been involved in choir for about five years now, and I have been involved in music for my whole life. 

Alvarado: I’ve been in the CCYC for five years now.

Nino de Rivera: I’ve been in CCYC since Spring 2016.

Expressions: How many people are involved in CCYC?

Cross: There’s quite a lot of people involved, it takes a lot of people to make it happen. 

Alvarado: There’s a lot, I’d say there’s about twenty in each level, and there are a lot of levels, so there is probably about seventy people. 

Nino de Rivera: If we include directors and parent volunteers, I would say about a hundred people are involved.

Expressions: Is there a uniform that you have to wear? How comfortable are they? Do you think you should be able to choose what you wear?

Cross: They are… Interesting. They’re cute, very long black dresses, and I like them. They’re not very comfortable though. Honestly, it’s something that we all come together as a whole, and it makes it more special for us, and I like that. 

Alvarado: [We have to wear] black gowns, kind of like the school choir, and you also have to wear a stone necklace. I think they’re alright. I sometimes wish we can wear all black clothing, and just be similar in that way, so we can still have self expression. I think it would be a good idea to be able to choose what we wear, but still have to wear black, because then we would be showing that we are unified in color, but also still unique. 

Nino de Rivera: Our group has those gowns the school choir wears, along with this gem necklace they give us. They’re okay, I guess, it just squeezes me for the short time I wear it. They make us look professional, don’t get me wrong and I like how we’re all together through that. When we did a Broadway themed concert, we only wore black shirts and black pants, which I definitely prefer because we get to have more freedom to move around and incorporate theatrics into some of our pieces.

Expressions: How many songs do you have to perform in one concert?

Cross: It always varies, it’s a range between ten to twelve of fifteen pieces.  

Alvarado: Probably around fifteen.

Nino de Rivera: About ten to fifteen pieces, depending on what’s coming up.

Expressions: Do your songs relate to what season it is, or holidays that are nearby? What has been your favorites?

Cross: Yeah, for sure. We have a winter concert right now and we are singing “Santa Claus Comes To Town”. [My favorite] is probably spring, I really like [the music we do in the spring]. 

Alvarado: Yeah, each season is themed, and sometimes holidays. Like, for Christmas, we definitely have songs for that. My favorite season [to sing in] is Christmas because we are really good at being jolly.

Nino de Rivera: We always alternate from winter-themed concerts to other themes. We’ve had Broadway, “Vocal Flight”, and “Daybreak” themes. My favourite out of all our years probably are Something’s Coming/Tonight from “West Side Story” and our upcoming “Ave Maria”.

Expressions: Do you see singing in your future? Maybe as a career?

Cross: [I see music in my future but] as a career, I don’t exactly know yet.  

Alvarado: Yeah, I have been singing since I was five, music is a big part of my journey, and I see it in the future. 

Nino de Rivera: Music is who I am. From before I knew English as a little kid, it’s been the biggest part of my life apart from school. However, I have other interests I’ll pursue as a career instead. I’ll keep doing music definitely.