The All-State Choir musicians are the very best of the best.
They go through a selection process that begins with thousands and thousands of choral students. After that, it gets refined further and further. To prove just how good this sounds, hear it yourself in this version of “Down in the River to Pray.”
This song is sure to have you fighting back tears of joy!
The piece was arranged by Jace Wittig.
Wittig is an educator, conductor, baritone and arranger from San Francisco, California.
In this clip, he took the challenging task of arranging an all-state choir performance of this traditional American song. “Down in the River to Pray” is also known as “The Good Old Way” and “Come, Let Us All Go Down.” The song is usually described as a Christian folk hymn or a southern gospel song.
Wittig, the conductor for the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, did an amazing job with this, and we can only imagine how good this sounded live!
His love for acapella choral music is quite obvious since Wittig founded a professional acapella chamber ensemble called Gaude in 2015.
The song, the choir and Wittig’s professionalism were a match made in heaven. The result is a breathtaking performance!
The acoustic quality is amazing and their voices are as perfect as they can get.
They rented out the whole hotel and the kids went out on their balconies to put on a show we will remember for a long time. It must’ve been great to have been a guest at the Hyatt Regency Louisville that night to be able to enjoy such a masterpiece. The harmonies swell so beautifully!
As it turns out, all-state choirs tend to be bigger than normal choirs.
There’s so much talent in this three-minute-long video!
People who were in a choir will probably have chills and huge smiles on their faces, imagining how fun this must have been to do. The way they hold a note and they’re able to stay together is phenomenal. They’re truly listening to each other and blending together so well.
These kids sing perfectly in tune, and their notes resound off the walls and echo back at them.
We loved how the video description says that this isn’t the same choir as the one singing the national anthem, because you could easily think it is. The choir that does the national anthem is the Kentucky All-State Choir.
In any case, this video makes you feel so grateful to be living in times when people can come together and make such beautiful music. As an added bonus, these performances can also be recorded and we can enjoy them on repeat. This song is so powerful and so moving, and you’ll probably have goosebumps listening to it—you might even be in tears! Be prepared for some gasps of awe and then whisper-singing along.
You can not see a conductor in the video, but she was there.
The conductor is Elena Sharkova, a woman from Russia who did a great job of keeping them in sync.
The soloist at the beginning wasn’t slowing down, and we can only say that the outcome left us speechless. In all, this was an amazing show!
Be sure to watch the whole video in the link below:
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