“Our choir has won for the last three years the Unanimous Superior award, and the year before that just the superior,” senior Faye Richards said when discussing the CAHS choir’s music awards. “I think that it’s pretty cool that we’ve been able to keep that streak up for the past few years.”

A member of choir for all four years of school, Faye Richards is very familiar with choir festivals. She’s been there through the ups and downs of the choir, including their victories at the CMEA (California Music Association) Choir Festival, where the Caiman Crescendos have taken home many awards.

However, this year’s competition was stiffer than before. “This past year we went to a much more advanced festival than we usually go to, so we were afraid that we weren’t going to be able to win the award,” Richards said.

Normally, the choir would attend an intermediate competition, but this year it happened to fall during tech week of Drowsy Chaperone. Instead, the choir had to compete at the advanced level, with less preparation than ever before. Many were afraid that the trend of Unanimous Superiors would not hold up under more difficult competition.

Freshman Rachel Johansson, who is new to both Classical Academy and its choir, expressed her previous concerns about the competition as well.

“There were only five or six other choirs there, and they were all really good, so it was a little bit nerve-wracking knowing that,” Johansson said. “Most choirs take choir as a class, so they go for an hour five days a week … so they had a lot more practice than we did.”

Despite all the hurdles that came up this choir season, the Caiman Crescendos had a successful year overall, due to the group’s diligent, focused work and shared passion of music, led by determined choir director Mrs. McCormick. “She works really really hard with every single section and she’ll take people who don’t even really know how to sing and just work with them until they sound great. And she won’t give up until everything sounds the way it should. She puts a lot of hard work and time and effort into everybody,” Richards said.

The choir has since wrapped up its season and completed auditions for next year, with the potential for further success and more awards on the horizon.