GREENDALE, Wis. — With just three more school days to go, Greendale High School senior Juliana Trauberman and her choir are getting in a few more rehearsals of the songs they will perform in Washington D.C. 

“I just remember it being announced late my junior year last year, and after the kind of dull year we had in performance, this was something nice to look forward to,” Trauberman said. “Especially for my senior year.”

The choir will sing five songs on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, representing Wisconsin in this year’s Festival of the States Concert Series. 

It coincides with the Centennial celebration of the Lincoln Memorial. 

“Everybody has been working super hard to get everything done in time, and we sound super good, and I’m really proud of everyone,” Trauberman added. 

The choir won’t be alone. They’ll be joined by the orchestra, which is also performing five pieces. 

Muhsin Coskun is a sophomore and has been playing violin for three years. He said the song choices are all great for this performance. 

“The most favorite is the legend of glory, and the hardest is the Brandenburg because it’s so [challenging] and so hard and so fast,” Coskun said. “But they both have the good same tempo, and they’re both good songs.”

Both Michael Jones, the choir director, and Britney Whiting, the orchestra director, say they’re proud of how much work the students have been putting in. 

Since there are three choirs and orchestras combining for this trip, they’ve only had three rehearsals together. 

“Some of them have really been hitting it hard outside of class,” Whiting said. “I hear them. They’ll check out a practice room at lunchtime or whatever it might be to get those parts they know need a little bit more work than just those three rehearsals that we have together.”

And after so long without performances and in-person rehearsals because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the students are looking forward to the unique opportunity on Sunday.