A pair of Mercer Island High School (MIHS) students will soon be displaying their vocal talent with a prestigious honor choir in Dallas, Texas.

Junior Shelby Conway and sophomore Brody Newcomer are part of an approximately 300-student assemblage who impressed the judges through a rigorous blind audition process to earn coveted spots in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Honor Choir.

The locals will unleash their singing voices at the 2025 ACDA National Conference on March 22 within the acoustically-renowned Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Conway and Newcomer were amongst more than 5,000 national high school students who auditioned for the highly-competitive ensemble and were selected to attend the nonprofit’s premier event that attracts thousands of choral music professionals from around the world, according to a press release. The event will run from March 18-22.

Conway, an alto II in the mixed choir, described her choir-singing journey from a first-grader to a high school junior: “I’ve always loved to sing. I’m excited to be able to do something so serious, and it’s going to be really exciting to be with so many other singers from across the country who are so passionate about choir like I am.”

Newcomer, a bass II in the tenor-bass choir, was so excited to be selected that he couldn’t stop smiling. He immediately informed his family, choir director Annalise Rockow and friends of the immense news. Newcomer joined Mercer Island choirs in the online realm during COVID as a sixth-grader. At that time, students sent in recordings of them singing, similar to how Newcomer and Conway auditioned for the national honor choir.

“I’ve been singing my whole life. I’m pretty sure if you ask my family members, they would probably say that with kind of a sigh,” he said of singing around the house. “I’ll just sing everywhere I go, a little too loud probably, but it’s really the thing that just makes me so happy and it makes me kind of function better overall.”

After submitting the audition recording, the confident Conway knew she had done her best and left the result in the judges’ hands.

“It was more of a situation where I was like, ‘If it happens, it happens.’ And if it doesn’t, there’s always an opportunity to try again,” she said.

Conway nailed it and she’s in.

For Newcomer, he sees it as a payoff for the passion, time and effort that he’s put into singing with choirs and on his own.

“It just is really awesome to get to be a part of this opportunity,” he added.

With Rockow lending a hand with the audition, the students recorded a couple scales, an excerpt of one song that they’ll be singing with the honor choir and a solo choral piece. One of Conway’s songs was “Silentium” and Newcomer delved into “Gentle Annie.”

Following high school choir, Newcomer and Conway can see themselves continuing to sing in college and beyond.

“I always want to keep it as a part of my life because it makes me so happy and it’s so important to me,” Newcomer said.

Added Conway, who has sung in high school honor choirs: “I definitely want to do choir in college, whether my major is choral singing or anything else to do with music, like music production maybe. But I definitely want to stay in choir as long as possible.”

The MIHS duo has plenty of advice to dole out to youngsters who are beginning their singing journeys and want to make an impact with their voices.

Stick with it, Newcomer said, adding: “It’s really rewarding. It won’t be something that you feel like, ‘Oh, do I have to do this?’ It’ll be, ‘Oh, I get to do this. I’m excited to do this from day one.’”

Conway said that the best way to traverse the singing path is to believe in yourself.

“I think the best thing is just to have confidence in yourself and be willing to take feedback,” she said. “The people who want you to succeed will be giving you that important feedback. And I definitely try to take as much feedback as I can to help self-improve as well.”