On the weekend of Sat., Feb. 13, the McClintock Chanticleers attended the NAU Jazz Festival, where they received the event’s highest honors.

The Jazz Festival did not pit choir against choir, but instead brought together choirs from all over the state in order to be graded on their performances. This allowed for students to be more focused on their overall performance, instead of being worried about specific teams they might have to place higher than.

“There is still some pressure because you want to get that high score, but even if another school scores high, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still get a high score,” junior Skaya Penneau-Tbakhi said.

The Jazz Festival also featured other activities to teach and inspire the students while they were there.

“[My favorite events were] watching NAU perform, as well as watching an a Capella group called Take Six,” Junior Madelyn Kartchner said.

It was still a significant learning experience for the bunch, with everyone taking home some new insights from the event.

“I learned about the importance of being confident in your performance, and that the clinician that is giving you a grade is just one opinion,” Penneau-Tbakhi said.

As a junior this year, Kartchner plans to go back to the festival next year as a senior.

“[Next year] we’ll probably work on balancing our sound better and be more confident in ourselves,” Kartchner said.

More information regarding the festival can be found at the NAU website: http://nau.edu/cal/music/jazz-studies/jazz-festival/