Four years and five classes of hard work in the Performing Arts Magnet (PAM) brings dedicated students to one of the hardest tasks they have ever faced, senior recitals.

Knowing months ahead, Seniors had to choose a song, a scene, or a topic to perform for their Senior Recital, they rehearsed and prepared for their special moment on stage performing in front of all of their family and friends.

Those who want to pursue music as their future career must organize a performance for their Senior Recital. Many students have worked towards their recital for their entire high school career. Throughout all four years, they had many requirements to fulfill. To get their PAM certificate, during their Junior year, they had to make a portfolio of the music or scenes they planned on doing for their senior recitals. Before a piece could be added to the portfolio, students had to do extensive research on it, making sure it fits all of the college requirements.

Four year choir student Audrey Boyd is one of the dedicated few to be doing a senior recital and has had her own challenges to overcome for her recital to happen.

“After doing all the research for my portfolio, I ended up throwing all but three of the songs I originally had and doing the research for new songs all over again.”, says Boyd.

For her recital, Boyd performed in French, Russian, and four other songs. When it came to the song choice, she doubted her ability to learn the foreign language pieces. Boyd got it down by listening to the pronunciations in different recordings and then memorizing them.

On top of all of these tasks they have to get their certificate during their Junior year, they had to contact college professors and an accompanist for their performance.

Decisions like playing a classical repertoire, or maybe a powerful, dramatic monologue for the Drama pathway are already stressful enough, but what if they also had to worry about other things like suddenly getting a cold the day before the big performance? This exact thing happened to Ms. Boyd.

Despite the cold Boyd pushed through, she spent a full day on vocal rest and tried every cold and sore throat remedy known to man. Her persistence and determination resulted in one of the best Senior recitals at Tracy High.