For the past ten years, Fauquier County Public School (FCPS) students have taken the stage to compete in what is now known as The Voice of Fauquier, a singing competition open to grades 8-12 from all FCPS students. While the event has evolved over the years, its heart has remained the same–giving students a chance to show off their mad skills.
Andrew Paul, a music director at Fauquier High School, organizes the Voice of Fauquier competition and makes sure that everything goes smoothly. The competition follows a simple format: contestants perform in front of an audience, and the audience votes to determine the winners. “Essentially, the contestants sing, and the audience votes,” Paul explained.
The idea for the Voice of Fauquier was inspired by a similar event at a school in North Carolina where Paul’s wife once taught. “Mostly, it started as a fundraiser,” he said. “I heard in my wife’s school…she did a singing competition…and that’s how it started.”
The structure of the competition ensures a level of unpredictability. “We introduce the contestants alphabetically, and then while the MC is explaining everything to the audience, [we] draw numbers, so the performance order is random,” Paul explained. Every contestant will sing in the first round and then the voting will begin. ‘The audience votes for five singers. They can’t vote for one person five times…and that’s how we choose who makes it to the final round…and this time, the audience votes for one person, and that’s how we choose the winner,” Paul explains.
While talent certainly plays a role, the winner is ultimately determined by audience votes. Even “if you have the most friends in the audience, you can win,” Paul admitted. “You could be a terrible singer…but when it comes down to it by and large, the best performances may not win first place – although I might think they should have… but they will place,” he continued. Senior Gwen Zapolla competed in the Voice of Fauquier in 2023, and her best piece of advice was to “have fun with [the competition]…and if you don’t get to the second round, don’t take it too personally [because] it’s a popularity contest.”
Over the years, organizing the event has become a smoother process. “As far as organizing it [in] the first year, there were a lot of things to take care of,” Paul says. Enthusiastic students collaborating with Paul in his creation of this fundraiser “wrote the [background] music, and we still use it,” Paul shared. Now that the main tribulations are over, “It’s just kind of getting the word out,” Paul says. Making sure that the event is organized and the dates are set for the production to go out on time is the biggest part.
With a decade of history behind it, the Voice of Fauquier continues to be a highlight for students and the community alike–whether they come to sing, support their friends or just enjoy a night of music.
