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Junior Siobhan Boyle is singing her way to success – from attending the coveted All-State Music Festival, to winning first place at the LFHS choir honors competition, to getting cast as a lead in the spring musical, Mean Girls.
Boyle’s performance journey has not been a short one. In fact, Boyle has been involved in the arts for almost her entire life.
“My older brother Connor loved performing when he was a kid,” Boyle said. “So, I wanted to perform too.”
Boyle’s talents, even at a young age, have never been limited to just one area of the arts.
“I started doing theater when I was about six at Citadel Theater, and then I started participating in the choir at St Mary’s in second grade,” Boyle said. “I’ve also done Irish dance since I was five. ”
Boyle built up her talents until she was ready to join her equally talented brothers to form their family band.
“Our band was called B4 and we performed in it throughout middle school,” Boyle said. “It was with my brothers – Declan, Connor, and Will.”
It may seem that the Boyles are a “wonder family,” with her three brothers excelling in both music and theater. Siobhan easily lives up to the family name.
On Feb. 1st, Boyle joined a select group of top music students in Illinois to participate in the All-State Choir, a three-day-long intensive festival. Not only is this an impressive feat statewide, but Boyle was also the only student at LFHS chosen to participate in this festival in any music area.
“All-State is a very hard thing to get into,” Choir Director Mr. Matthew Begale said. “For the audition, you have to know five songs and you have to be ready to perform any excerpt from each song at the highest musical level. On top of that, you also have to demonstrate your tonal skills through scales.”
The audition is not easy and students can devote large periods of time to perfecting their submission.
“I tried filming for like six hours,” Boyle said. “So, I was very excited when I found out that I got in.”
After the video auditions, students are chosen to go to their respective district festivals in early November. From there, a smaller group of students go to All-State.
“We sang for eight hours on Thursday and eight hours on Friday,” Boyle said. “There was a college fair where you could just walk around and then on Saturday we had our big performance in a hockey arena.”
While the festival is rigorous and intense, it is equally as rewarding.
“From this experience, I realized the amount of places you can go with music in your life,” Boyle said. “I felt an amount of enthusiasm that people have for music that I hadn’t encountered before.”
Of course, since the festival spans three days, there’s time for other activities that are non-music related.
“We do some little fun things that have kinda just happened over the years,” Beagle said. “We see this silly sculpture and we say it’s a big deal and everyone thinks it’s hysterical. This year we went to Wally’s gas station. It’s just the wildest pit stop ever with like 78 gas pumps. We laughed for a half hour, so we decided to make it a new tradition.”
Boyle’s career hasn’t stopped since her All-State adventure. She was recently cast as Janis in LFHS’ upcoming production of Mean Girls alongside her brother Declan, who plays Damien. Mean Girls performances will be April 18, 19, and 20.
“Siobhan is incredibly diligent and super hardworking,” Beagle said. “We’re just really proud of her.”
