EP's Suzanne Summers Heading To All-State Chorus Finals For 2nd Time

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Evergreen Park Community High School’s Suzanne Summers is preparing for her second consecutive trip to Peoria to take part in the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) All-State Chorus. She will head down state late Wednesday and spend the next 3-4 days alongside the best high school choir singers in Illinois.

This year’s trip will feel a bit different, however. Summers will be the lone Evergreen Park Mustang participating in the three-day long late January event a year after she was joined by fellow 2024 Evergreen Park ILMEA All-Chorus state qualifiers Matt Dever and Diego Toledo, both of whom graduated from EPCHS a year ago.

“I’m going to try and meet a lot more people this year,” Summers said. “Last year I had the safety blanket of going with my friends, so I didn’t really come home with a new set of friends. To connect with the kids from the other schools this year is so important, and that will help connect me to the music I’m singing.”

There’s a step by step process to qualifying as a member of the ILMEA All-State Chorus, even for singers like Summers who have qualified already in a previous year.

“First you have to audition for districts, you need to prepare 3 excerpts for the All-State piece and the district piece, record scales and triads and send it all together in one long audition video,” Summers said.

She then had to compete at the one-day District 1 chorus festival in November among about 200 of the best high school singers around Chicagoland in what has regularly been called the “most competitive” district in the state.

Although she made it to All-State as a junior, Summers said she was still overjoyed when the announcement came that she made it again.

“It’s not guaranteed for anyone,” she said. “Nothing is ever 100 percent and I still had some doubts, but maybe a little less surprised this year than last year.”

Summers’ trek to All-State Choir is just the latest accomplishment in her life as a singer, which started when she was a fourth-grade student at Evergreen Park’s Southwest Elementary School.

“I started chorus in 4th grade, would sing in talent shows and have been doing theater here in Evergreen Park since 4th grade as well,” Summers said. “Singing, dancing and acting has been my dream. The passion that I have toward it has made me the person I am now.”

She’s one of EPCHS’ most well-rounded accomplished seniors as a member of both the school’s Madrigals and Unaccompanied Minors choir groups, in addition to starring in many of the Fine Arts department’s musical and theater performances. She will play the Fairy Godmother in the upcoming performance of “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” scheduled for February 28-March 2 at Evergreen Park Community High School’s Marshall Batho Auditorium.

Summers plans to major in musical theater in college, and would like to find a career in the arts with a long-term goal of becoming a stage director.

“I will always want to be doing something in music and theater,” she said.

But for now, Summers' focus will be on this weekend’s All-State weekend, which will include a group performance at the iconic Peoria Civic Center.

“The whole experience is life changing,” she said. “It’s crazy to be able to do it twice.”