Colfax students to sing at state event

Seven golden-throated Colfax High School students have qualified for the state solo and ensemble contest.

A soloist, a duet, and a seven-member ensemble from Colfax will bring their best warbling to the state festival April 23- 24 in Yakima.

Colfax junior Kyle Largent, who will sing in the seven -member Colfax ensemble and the duet this year also qualified for the all-state mixed choir.

Largent traveled to Yakima in mid-February where he practiced for several days on several numbers with the state choir. Approximately 3,000 students around the state auditioned for the mixed choir, which accepts 350 students.

Largent and Ben May qualified as a duet.

Soprano Lindsay Webber will be the soloist. Other members of the ensemble are Wayne Sandell, May, Hannah Higginson, Tarryn Anderson, Kelsey Nails, and Webber.

One song performed by the Colfax duet is All Night All Day, an African America spiritual song. A song performed by the ensemble is Jazz Gloria.

“I love singing and performing and acting,” Largent said in a short interview with the Gazette this week. “I could see the theatre arts in my future.”

Colfax choir director Cary Cammack has led many a singer to the state level. He says the experience isn’t so much about being able to sing out in the real world as it is about building confidence for the adolescents.

“I think more than anything else this gives a kid confidence,” he said. “You’re creating character and creating confidence.”

Cammack said several of the students going to state are taking private lessons from a music teacher in Pullman. The extra work on their voices has helped launch them to the state level, he said.