When the students of Hazen High School’s Divina Voce choir came back to school after the WMEA-WIAA State Ensemble Contest, they were welcomed back with high praise from the school administration and staff.

The 65-member women’s choir had won first place at the state contest for the first time in Hazen history. The choir had a history of getting high scores, but they never came close to the coveted first place.

“After years of going to it and getting great scores — perfect scores lots of times — but never getting placed, we got ourselves into a pattern of keeping the state contest in arm’s length,” said choir director Josh Viles. “We started thinking maybe it didn’t really matter that much. After all, it was a 10 minute performance, nobody interacts with you… and you wait for them to dole out the results. So it’s a very satisfying thing. It’s not the memorable performance of the year.”

When Viles became the choir teacher in 2004, Divina Voce was considered the “leftover” choir that had 11 women and not enough members to create a mixed choral group. In his first year there, the choir quickly found success in winning the regional title for the first time and making their way to the state competition.

Since then, Viles has been adding to the number and growing the talent of the group.

Now the 65-member group meets at the crack of dawn, during what Viles calls the “awful” zero period from 6:30 – 7:15 a.m.

“That is because we wanted to make sure that everybody who wants to take it can. … We moved to that zero period so we can make sure they can be committed.”

Students have to audition to be part of the group that’s largely compromised of sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Viles said he looks for students who have “nice, clean, clear and moldable voice,” and also girls who have confidence.

“Even with 65 girls, sometimes the music divides them to 8, 10, 12 parts sometimes, which will only leave a handful of them. So they have got to show me that they’re brave enough to jump right in there and try it, and they’ve got to show that they’re not afraid to be wrong,” he said. “That’s a hard thing.”

Viles describes this year’s choir as talented students who are “committed to musicianship.” However, he said he is still trying to figure out how they ended up winning first place at the contest.

“The most satisfying thing about this win is that I don’t think we did anything special,” he said. “We did what we always do, which is to work hard and be as musical as we possibly can, and do justice interpreting the text the right way. We just did our process and it worked out in our favor, which is very gratifying.”

At the competition, which was conducted on April 29 at Central Washington University, Viles said he tried to dissuade the girls from staying for the results because he had been disappointed one too many times.

But his students persisted and he relented.

“I had this sinking feeling that they were all going to be so disappointed,” he said. “And I said out loud, ‘I’ll never ask anything again if they can please get third place this one time so they won’t be disappointed.’”

When it was time to reveal the women’s ensemble category, and the third and second place winners were announced, the fear of defeat finally dawned on the group.

“One of (the girls) turned to me and said, ‘Maybe we should just go,’” he said. “I said, ‘No. You wanted to stay so bad. Don’t be poor sports.’”

After what seemed like the “longest pregnant pause,” the announcement was made and Divina Voce had won their first state title.

“It was so exciting. I can’t even tell you how that felt for me,” Viles said. “After all those years of having them come so close, and finally they being rewarded for the kind of work they should be validated for doing… it was the top 5 most exciting moments in my life. It was also great carrying the trophy around my teacher friends.”

When the choir got back to school, the administration set up a celebratory breakfast for them. Many teachers taped a picture of the choir on their classroom doors or played a clip of the choir for their students.

“It’s great to (win) when we can,” he said. “It’s great to get scores but I always try to keep (the choir) grounded and rooted. The athletic model that the state insists upon isn’t the reason why we do this. Making music is because of the community you have when you do it, because of what you want to give back to the people who are listening to it. Those are the important things to me.”