The celestial sound of 350 of the nation’s top high school singers will reverberate through every music hall and college campus in Nashville, Tennessee this month—and Junior Oliver Ades will help create it.

The All-National chorus festival, at which Ades will perform, takes place Oct. 27-30, and includes over 20 hours of rehearsal leading up to a concert on the last day. Participants also have some time to relax and attend other events, such as a performance of Tarzan.

Ades started singing in third grade. He joined chorus in elementary school, and it’s been a big part of his life ever since. He plans to continue his passion for music in the future, maybe through college a capella, although he doesn’t think he will pursue singing as a career.

“I’m excited to meet new people who all enjoy the same things that I do,” he said

He’s also very excited to be going to Nashville, as it’s known as the country music capital of the U.S., and provides a fantastic atmosphere for every type of music.

Ades participated in the Maryland All-State Chorus for the past two years, and to audition for that, he performed a song and presented a melodic and rhythmic sight-reading selection for the judges.

The audition process for All-National was different. In April, Ades sent in a short video of himself singing a song from a provided list. The National Association for Music Education, the organization running the event, informed him in July that he had made the group.

As with All-State, Ades was sent music earlier this month to learn on his own. He says the music is fairly difficult, and definitely harder than the choral music in school.

“Normally for these kind of events, [there are] practice recordings to help you learn your part,” Ades said. “[The music] didn’t come with the National music, which makes it a little more difficult to learn.”

Ades noted he was the only Whitman student to try out. Davidson said he might have even been the only MCPS student to try out.

“I think that if more people [from Whitman] tried out, more people would get in,” he said. Ades only found out about it by chance, by seeing a post about the auditions on Facebook, he said.

Choral director Jeff Davidson wasn’t aware until recently that this program existed, and although he said it will be fully worthwhile for Ades, he doesn’t see himself promoting it to Whitman students in the future, as other programs like All-State already offer similarly enriching experiences. Davidson also said that this year’s conductors for the group are great, notably Rollo Dilworth from Temple University.

“Rollo is a great, great, great conductor, and [Ades] will love it,” Davidson said.