De Soto High School is changing in many aspects. The advanced choir, also known as Madrigals, is certainly not immune to these changes.

Madrigals auditions have changed significantly for the 2015-16 school year.

In order to audition, a student has to learn their part and hold their own against the other three parts.

For instance, a student auditioning for alto would sing the alto harmony with a soprano, tenor and bass singing with them to see if they can hold their own part.

Something that proved helpful for this, was that the song students auditioned with did not change. Students auditioned on the Star Spangled Banner.

“The song is very difficult. It’s an extremely difficult arrangement. This song makes the divergency wider from the cans and the cannots.” said Madrigals and choir director Mary-Etta Copeland.

Sophomore Paden Bedford believes that this year’s auditions are running much more smoothly than ever before.

“It is a lot more organized than last year. Like, last year you weren’t really sure who was auditioning or not,” Bedford said.

With the influx of freshmen auditioning, some worry that there will be more than two Madrigals classes. Having two classes has already caused rehearsal issues in the past, and adding a third could create more stress for all involved.

However, Copeland believes she has a solution.

“This year, we can keep one group guy-girl, and the other all girl. That will make preparation and performance much easier. But, that falls back on the guys. We don’t know if they can all be in one class,” Copeland said.

Some believe that a fix for this is to simply cut students auditioning, which has not been done in the past.

“I do think there should be cuts, because I think there shouldn’t be so many people that we can’t practice together,” freshman Kennedy Forshey said. “I think there may be cuts because Mrs. Copeland already doesn’t like having two classes, and since there are a lot of people, there might be three madrigal classes … no one will like that.”

However, cutting students from the class could also prove problematic.

“I think everyone should have the chance to sing with the advanced Madrigals classes because it can make you better. There are a lot of talented people who auditioned, all of them could be used, but I think that would make it hard for Mrs. Copeland to cut people,” Forshey said.

Copeland has decided that she will cut students from the class this year.

“At this point, I’ve heard some students that will be better off in choir. That’s probably the best thing I can say about that,” Copeland said. “Auditions are going incredibly. There’s an exception here and there, but overall, a larger percentage have been much better prepared than in the past.”