In what is apparently an effort to relocate most of the gold supply on the planet to Napa in the form of trophies and medals, local choral students are up to all kinds of things.

Vintage High School singers are in New York this week performing at Heritage Festival of Gold at Riverside Church in Manhattan. Thursday morning, 120 students from Napa High’s choral music programs leave for Ireland where they’ll spend their spring break performing in several cities.

Tuesday night the Napa singers previewed for parents the works they’ll perform in Ireland, a combination of sacred music and Irish and American folksongs. “Welcome to the $2,400 concert,” Travis Rogers quipped as he reviewed itinerary for the Irish tour.

Last week, Napa High hosted the first Napa Valley Choral Classic festival, with impressive results. Rogers, Napa’s choral director, invited 31 middle and high school choirs from 13 different schools and organizations, “based on the reputation of the ensembles for excellent singing.” Schools from as far away as Fresno, Redding and Grass Valley came here to perform, and three nationally known judges were also in attendance:  Jo-Michael Scheibe from the University of Miami (Florida), Jing Ling-Tam from the University of Texas-Arlington, and John Yarrington from Houston Baptist University.

  Their task was to evaluate the groups on several criteria, including tone, intonation, interpretation, dynamic contrast, blend, balance and overall presentation.

“Napa area groups did very well at the festival,” Rogers said, in something of an understatement.

Five Napa High School choirs — Chamber Choir, Women’s Ensemble, Chorus, Concert Men and the morning Concert Choir — and the St. John’s Lutheran Choraliers — all took “Unanimous Superior” ratings, the highest that could be awarded by the judges.

The Napa High School Concert Women, earned an overall “Superior” rating.

The Napa High School Treble Choir, Beginning Men’s Chorus and Afternoon Concert Choir, along with the Vintage High School Women’s Ensemble, Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, the Harvest Middle School Chorus and the Napa Valley Youth Chorus earned overall ratings of “Excellent.”

Four perfect scores of 100 points were awarded to individual choirs by specific judges: One perfect score to the Shasta High School Madrigals from Redding, one perfect score to the Napa High School Morning Concert Choir and two perfect scores to the Napa High School Concert Choir men.

One judge commented, after listening to the Napa Morning Concert Choir’s moving rendition of the complex and challenging “Laudate Pueri,” “I’ve never heard a high school choir attempt this — in fact, I’ve never heard a college choir do it.”

Young men in harmony

In addition, Jamie Butler, who also directs choral programs at Napa High, reported that a student barbershop quartet won first place for California in a recent competition — the first time ever.

The Chromatones, made up of Danny Giglio, tenor; Kyle Ebeling, lead; Jessie Featherstone, baritone; and Steve Sandy, bass, competed on St. Patrick’s Day in Reno. They may be familiar faces for many Napans who recently saw the Napa High production of “The Music Man.” Giglio, Ebeling and Featherstone (along with J.W. Toy) made up the lyrically comic barbershop quartet; Sandy was not in that quartet because he was busy wowing the crowd with his performance as the music man himself, Harold Hill.

Butler noted that the students were coached by Craig Rode, a 20-year member of the Napa Valley Barbershop Chapter for the Far Western District’s high school quartet competition. “Even though the quartets were made up of Napa High students, they were completely sponsored by local groups who are doing great things for young people,” Butler said. “The local chapter supported the boys by paying for music, for hotel stays and for entering the contest.”

Rode said Butler, who coaches the vocal music workshop at Napa, “deserve a lot of credit too. By the time I got to the guys, he’d already taught them — I just came in did a little polishing; that’s all I needed to do.

“Not only are they good singers, but they’re terrific people,” he added. “They’re quality young men, the best.”

The Chromatomes performed “How Deep is the Ocean” and “I Got Rhythm.” Their interest in barbershop singing, Rode said, is encouraging. Barbershop singing, is “an American musical art form,” he said. “It’s nice to see there’s a possibility it may continue.”

“The Ladybugs,” a quartet of girls, made up of Liz Laning, Catharine Forma, Melissa Newton and Taylaur Smith competed in the Sweet Adelines Rising Stars contest March 17 in San Ramon, and placed second, competing against five other quartets from the Bay Area.

They sang “Blue Skies” and “Why Should I Cry Over You.” They were coached by Pat Bates, a member of Sweet Adelines who also helps at Harvest Middle School.