More than 1,100 school students from throughout Los Alamitos performed to a sold out crowd in the All-District Choral Festival, “The Song in my Heart” on March 7 at Cottonwood Church auditorium. March is national “Music in our Schools” month.

A real life version of Glee is getting ready to descend upon Los Alamitos High School from March 21-23, when nearly 2,000 performers will take part in Xtravaganza 2013.  The event is one of the largest show choir competitions in the United States and will feature many of the top show choirs in the country competing head-to-head for championship bragging rights.

The event will take place in the Margaret Webb Performing Arts Center on the campus of Los Alamitos High School, 3460 Cerritos Ave. in Los Alamitos.

Xtravaganza 2013 will feature 50 choirs in six divisions. Show choirs will compete in front of a panel of five judges, who will grade the groups based on choreography, sound quality, vowel formation, syncronicity, and more.

“This is the eighth year we’ve hosted Xtravaganza and the caliber of the choirs joining us this year is nothing short of spectacular. Many of these groups are national champions who are among the top choirs in the nation. It’s a privilege for us to host such an array of talent coming to Los Alamitos,” Los Alamitos Choir Director David Moellenkamp said.

Xtravaganza 2013 kicks off Thursday, March 21 at 4 p.m. with Novice and Intermediate Women’s groups and concludes on Saturday, March 23 at 7:15 p.m. It will end with Advanced Mixed AAA groups, followed by an exhibition by Los Alamitos High School’s SoundFX choir.

“While competing is an important element of this event, Xtravaganza also represents a celebration of the creativity, hard work and team work that are being channeled into passionate, talented and entertaining displays for everyone to enjoy,” Moellenkamp said.  “In many ways, those are the most important reasons why almost 2,000 student performers are coming together for this event.”

Out-of-state competitors include the Wheaton Warrenville Classics (Wheaton, Ill.), who are undefeated this season.  Joining them will be Twinsburg Great Expectations (Twinsburg, Ohio), Homewood The Network (Homewood, Ala.), Westwood Rebelaires (Sloan, Iowa) and Notre Dame Prepartory Saints Alive (Scottsdale, Az.).

Several of the best southern California show choirs will compete.  Perennial favorites Burroughs High School (Burbank), Burbank High School and Hart High School (Newhall) will attend with a combined 13 choirs between them.  Other crowd favorites like Bonita Vista High School (Chula Vista) and Serrano High School (Phelan) will be rounding out the highly competitive field.

Middle schools will be well represented, too. Ten groups are set to appear, including two choirs each from Oak Middle School and McAuliffe Middle School, and two choirs from Sowers Middle School in nearby Huntington Beach.

For more information on Xtravaganza 2013 and the Los Alamitos Choir Program, visit www.losalamitoschoir.com.

Competition is heating up in the arena of the Lions Club’s annual student speaker zone level contest held last Friday at their club building in Garden Grove..

Have a quiet peaceful evening while the kids are out having a great time at The Youth Center in Los Alamitos on the fourth Friday of every month from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The next scheduled night will be March 22.