Redwood Senior Jadzia Stiff talks about her memorable trip to New York

By Piper Figallo

Ranger and Chamber Choir went on a trip to New York over Spring Break for their choir festival. They performed at Riverside Church. Chamber choir got third place and Ranger choir got first place in the festival. Redwood’s choir students not only got to perform in New York, but they got to do many other activities. 

Choir student Jadzia Stiff ‘23 gives insight on the festival and some other things the choir did in New York.

Stiff starts off by explaining the preparation for this festival. 

Stiff says, “The week before the festival, we had to redo our standing order because not everyone in choir was going on the New York trip.”

She elaborates on the importance of the standing order by saying, “If people are missing, everything sounds kind of weird unless we are in the correct order, so we redid all of that.

Stiff adds that, “We sang through all the songs that we learned throughout the year to figure out which ones sounded good in the orders we were in, and Mr. Carillo chose the best ones.” 

One of Stiff’s favorite parts about the festival was the location. Stiff says, “We sang at the Riverside Church which is a huge, gorgeous church.”

Stiff talks more about the magnificent church by saying, “When you sing in it, the sound carries in the entire room, and you are echoing back to yourself.”

Stiff elaborates on how she felt about performing for the festival. She says, “I was a little nervous, but I was more just reminiscing because it was the last time we were going to sing those songs.” 

Since Stiff is a senior, this performance was very memorable to her and it carried lots of meaning since the end of this school year is coming soon.

Redwood’s choir got to go to a lot of fun places on this trip.

Stiff says, “We did lots of things in New York, we went to the Metropolitan Museum and Central Park, and we got to explore Times Square a lot.

She also says, “We saw two Broadway shows, Aladdin and Wicked, and we got to do a Broadway workshop with someone who works in the pit for Wicked.”

Other things choir got to do was see the 9/11 memorial, the Statue of Liberty, and they got to visit Ellis Island.

Stiff says the highlight of her trip was, “spending time with all of my friends, because a lot of the people I hang out with were on this trip, so being with them was really great.”

Stiff really enjoyed the trip and says, “It was great going to New York because I want to be on Broadway, so it was cool to have this experience.”

Tags: choir, choir festival, New York, rangers, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, rhs, visalia ca