Los Osos High School (LOHS) is a lucky campus to have several extracurriculars for students who are versed in the arts, ranging from theater, art, and of course, singing.
Bear Voices is one part of the choir ensembles at LOHS. The key difference is that the singers in Bear Voices sing acapella, meaning that it is only their voices and there are no instruments.
The program itself is made up of 15 students, all of whom have to audition in order to make it into the section. One of these students is the student director, senior Maxwell Alari.
“This is my first year in Bear Voices after switching from acapella to vocal jazz… And I could not be happier,” he said. “As the student director, I essentially do what the choir director does, but at a lower level.”
Alari has the responsibility of leading the choir in warm-ups, organizing sectionals, and being the representative for the choir in instances such as interviews or media.
Senior Adrienne Magno said, “I am an alto two in Bear Voices, and I’ve been in the program for three years.” They added that one of their favorite parts of being in Bear Voices is how musically challenging the group is, considering it is an acapella choir.
They said, “I also enjoy how connected everyone in Bear Voices is with one another. It’s truly such an enjoyable experience to be able to be with your friends and make music at the same time.”
Senior Corinne McCorkle, with this year being her fourth year in choir and third year in Bear voices, said, “I love that we get to learn harder music at a faster pace than we do normally, and that we get to know each other a lot more in a smaller group.”
Alari said that he enjoys bringing “a new genre to the choral program” at LOHS, and that the group is excited to bring everyone new music for their upcoming events.
It is evident that the Bear Voices ensemble works hard throughout the year to bring on fantastic, talented performances.
The upcoming winter concert alongside jazz is on December 12th, where they will be performing classic Christmas songs.
Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for more information to support these fantastic Grizzly singers!