Culver City Schoolgirls Sing in 'The Nutcracker'

Twelve-year-old Sarah Toutounchian, and 13-year-olds Cricket Cary-Green, Claire Skelley and Sofia Frohna are standing in a small room at singing "The Dance of the Snowflakes" from The Nutcracker ballet. Their tone is clear and fills the space.

Suddenly, they stop and giggle as Claire declares they are off-time.

Luckily, this is just an impromptu performance for a visiting reporter. The girls have just finished their four-night run in The Joffrey Ballet's production of The Nutcracker at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles.

There was also a fifth local girl who sang in the production: 10-year-old Isabel Berliner who attends . The five were accompanied by 21 members of the National Children's Chorus and guest singers engaged by the chorus' Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer. 

While the chorus has 180 students throughout Los Angeles, McEndarfer said he only used a small group for the ballet, and he wanted to bring in new students for The Nutcracker. The five Culver City girls were chosen to be part of that group.

"It's part of our outreach," McEndarfer told Patch. "We want to go out into the community to bring music into the community."

The girls heard about the auditions thanks to an email blast McEndarfer sent out to his various connections in the city.

Claire heard about the auditions from the musical director at  her church; Grace Evangelical Lutheran, while Sofia said a friend who produces musicals at the school emailed McEndarfer's notice to several students.

"And I tagged along with Sofia," Cricket added.

Sarah said she also received a similar email. But Isabel didn't know anything about the auditions until her mother tried to get tickets to the show.

"When that didn't work out, my mom got an email about how the National Children’s Chorus was looking for guest singers," Isabel said. "I was very excited and when I got in I was beyond happy."

The girls all have extensive experience performing and have been singing since they were little.

"I've been singing in my church choir since I was two," Claire said. "I was in 16 musicals and four operas."

Sarah is the novice of the group, whose greatest role to date has been performing as a soloist at Westchester Methodist Church.

McEndarfer had nothing but good things to say about the girls' talents.

"They had clear tone," he said. "You could tell that they were focused, intelligent and that they were going to be good performers."

"The Dance of the Snowflakes," the first act finale of the popular holiday ballet, is the only part of The Nutcracker that features a vocal performance. In most productions the chorus usually sings from the orchestra pit alongside the musicians, which apparently made for some interesting moments.

Sarah said the bass player accidentally hit her with his bow as he tuned up before performances, and Isabel said the orchestra made things more festive by putting Santa hats on the tops of the double basses. 

Sofia said she was excited to be in a venue where other great performers have appeared onstage and Claire said she spent a lot of time listening to the music from The Nutcracker with her father who is a musician.

"It has sparked a love of classical music," she said.

Now that they've had their first taste of fame on (or in this case, below) the professional stage, all four girls plan on auditioning for the National Children's Chorus. 

Isabel summed up how they all felt about their 15 minutes (or four nights) of fame:

"It was an amazing experience," she said.

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