Samantha Hilton, Level II, Second Place

Interview with Samantha:
I started singing at age 4 at my grandparents’ church, Golden Hills, in Oakley, CA. I am currently participating in the Chamber Singers and Advanced Treble Choir at Prescott High School, as well as being a member of Yavapai Youth Choirs’ mixed choir, Colla Voce, and their women’s choir, Voci Sorella.

I will attend NAU in the fall and plan on earning a degree in Psychology. I will also continue my music studies and take Music Theory classes while studying there. I’m excited!

I will absolutely continue performing. I plan on auditioning for the NAU choral program as well as performing with some musician family members on my off time.

My favorite part of singing Broadway musical show tunes is the pure emotion that can be expressed in the performance. Despite the fact that many musical theatre songs can be comedic and a bit satirical at times, perfecting the emotion portrayed in the music to the audience is absolutely priceless.

That being said, I very much enjoy singing classical music! After all, my earliest performance memories were in more classical settings, so I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of tempering my voice to go along with more classical styles, which often prove to need a bit more finesse than musical theatre. Singing in other languages is also a great challenge, as it’s easy to become closed-minded in singing in English exclusively, so it’s always refreshing to try and take a crack at a foreign language.

Winning the Prescott Young Artists Award means magnitudes to me. I was given the opportunity to audition with Climb Every Mountain, a song that I have grown to really love. Also, by winning this prize it means that I am still improving, even after being a vocalist for most of my life. It’s absolutely amazing that there are opportunities like this for young musicians like me and the other immensely talented vocalists who win this award.