On Saturday, December 4th, the advanced vocal ensemble, Viva Voce, competed in The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition. The group of eight students competed against three other teams for a grand prize of 1,000 dollars. Judged by the Dickens Caroling Group, Viva Voce performed their holiday music songs piece by piece. 

At the end of a long hour of caroling and being seen by the four judges, Viva Voce was announced the overall winner. They also won the people’s choice award. The group went home with a $1,000 dollar grand prize as well as getting a brick in pioneer square to engrave with whatever they want.

Senior Riley Suzuki said, “I am beyond excited to have won figgy pudding. It was a great bonding experience and a great chance to work on our repertoire in front of an audience.” Suzuki was excited during the competition but not nervous. Overall, Suzuki was happy with the performance and proved herself wrong by how good we performed together. “I thrive for performance and had a lot of fun working with the family that we have created within Viva Voce.” 

“Winning felt amazing! I was surprised and really proud of our group. I didn’t expect that we would actually win BOTH prizes, but we were definitely underestimating ourselves,” said sophomore MJ Lorino. 

In 2018, Viva Voce competed in the same competition and ended up winning the 3rd place prize. In 2019, the group got the participation award. The next year in 2020 there was no competition due to covid so winning after 2 years of not being able to compete, winning this year was a huge accomplishment for all who participated. “I was very nervous yet excited so they canceled, but in the end I was very happy that we did it!” said Lorino. “During the caroling portion, I was just focused on giving a great performance and showing the holiday spirit  through my body and voice, and I think we achieved that pretty well.”

Angela Goodling, the Mountainside Choir Director said, “To be honest, I felt like I had already won as their director because I feel very fortunate to work with such dedicated and inspiring young adults.  Every morning we meet to sing is a gift!” Going into Yuletide at Mountainside, which was a two night musical performance put on by the performing arts department, Mrs. G realized there was a new boost of confidence and new found motivation that came from the group’s win. “Taking pride in your work as a musician and artist feels good.  Good quality choral singing is infectious and I also hope that the attention will draw more of the MHS student body to our choir program.” 

Overall, Viva Voce did an amazing job at The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition and winning was such an accomplishment for not only the members in Viva Voce, but for the performing arts department and Mountainside High School as a whole. If you got a chance to attend Yuletide at Mountainside you can clearly see that the students involved share a passion for music and strive for excellence within their performance.