Charles City singer makes mark in national competition

By Lydia Gessner, Enterprise Media Reporter

As Anders Haglund stepped out onto the stage, it was the first time since competing in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Student Auditions that he had a live audience before him.

And this time it wasn’t just a few judges in the semifinals. Instead he was before a room full of people and competing for a national ranking.

Haglund said he wasn’t thinking like himself in those moments.

“I was nervous then, and then walking onto the stage I guess I went into sort of game mode and I stopped thinking about it and I performed as best as I could,” he said. “I tried to put myself in the moment as best as I could.”

This wasn’t Haglund’s first time in the spotlight. Back in middle school, after enjoying a semester of band, his outgoing fifth-grade self decided to sign up for choir.

Little did he know he had hit upon his future passion and career path.

“I don’t know, I just really liked doing it and I didn’t want to stop,” he said.

By eighth-grade he was trying classical music and by freshman year he was taking voice lessons. He also kept auditioning for honor and other choirs. Since then he has used his talents in numerous ways, but this is his first time in the national spotlight.

This was only Haglund’s second time auditioning for NATS. Last year he auditioned for and reached the preliminary round for the classical category. This year he reached the semifinals in both classical and musical theater for the upper high school category.

He was one of the top third to advance to nationals from the regional competition in February for the North Central Region, which includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Where he ended up when the competition was all over was not what he anticipated.

“No, not even in the slightest,” Haglund said. “Especially classically. I thought I had a tiny chance for musical theater just because I had been working on it quite a bit over this past year and I felt like I improved a lot.”

This was the first time that his vocal music teacher, Scott Blankenbaker, who he has worked with since freshman year, had a student advance this far.

“I thought he did fantastically well for the first time ever auditioning in front of a live audience,” Blankenbaker said.

Because Haglund had recorded and submitted all of his previous auditions as YouTube videos due to the pandemic, doing a live performance took some extra preparation.

“I guess that was one of the things that we worked on during that month from June to the competition, was just performing the pieces, just all six pieces, start from finish,” Haglund said, explaining he had three classical and three musical theater pieces he performed.

He also had to practice singing in a facemask, since he would be performing in one for the semifinal round.

He arrived in Chicago and on June 30 he met his accompanist. The next day, he competed in the semifinals for musical theater and classical singing.

Every audition through semifinals, Haglund performed in front of three judges who are typically voice teachers like Blankenbaker in NATS.

“I was very happy where I was at semifinals and I was just like ‘I just want to perform the music one last time,’” Haglund remembers.

But he wasn’t done.

“And then I got announced to be a finalist and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh I have to do this again,’” Haglund said with a laugh. “I’d set my peace with it already…”

The announcement filled him with a mix of emotions, including happiness and a bit of denial that it could really be true, he remembers.

He was to be one of only three finalists in the classical category for the upper high school auditions. The final audition would take place in front of a packed conference room.

“I’ve performed all my life so it wasn’t a new experience to perform in front of a large group of people, it was just the idea that I’m performing to be top three in the nation that I think was nerve-wracking,” Haglund said.

When he walked out onto the stage he first met the other two finalists who shared his nerves and anticipation.

“Well it was before, they had you sit in a room like sort of back and you would walk up and where you got to meet the other two finalists, who are really, really nice guys,” Haglund said. “Really they were. They were really funny, too.”

Then Haglund entered “game mode” and let his hours upon hours of practice, from vocals to learning to speak and sing part of another language, carry him through each familiar note.

And his efforts were rewarded as he came back to Charles City ranked third in the nation before the start of his senior year at CCHS.

Several area residents supported Haglund in his ambitions by donating to a GoFundMe page which helped to cover the cost of his lodging in Chicago, his accompanist and other expenses for the trip.

“I mean I don’t know if I can really say much. They’re all so supportive of me and my instrument and I try my best to give back as much as I can,” Haglund said. “I sing in community choirs, I perform, I do community shows. I’m so thankful for everything that they’ve given me, especially in a small town Iowa in the middle of nowhere. I try to give back as much as I can, but I don’t think I ever will be able to.”

Haglund plays piano in the jazz band and takes classical piano lessons with Suzanne Torkelson at Wartburg, runs cross country, will accompany the Comet Choir this year, performs in speech and participates in school musicals. He also plans to do community shows around Iowa in places like Decorah, Waterloo and even potentially in Rochester, Minnesota.

“It’s a lot,” Haglund said with a laugh.

Blankenbaker said this NATS competition is one of the larger competitions for those in Haglund’s age group. Others are more focused on professionals at the end of their college career or beyond.

As Haglund begins looking at colleges, Blankenbaker said this is an accomplishment that will stand out.

“Certainly in the classical world, it’s something like perspective colleges and universities will take notice of,” Blankenbaker said. “They’ll be familiar with NATS.”

As for the competition itself, Blankenbaker loves that students get to listen to other singers, especially in more advanced sections and “hear what singing can sound like,” especially with the classical category that is not as common in this area.

For Haglund, the competition showed him greater possibilities for his talent.

“Well, not so much as I have learned, but how much I need to learn. It’s really eye-opening seeing people who are better than you,” Haglund said. “And saying, ‘You know, in a year’s time, I could probably do that,’ but it’s always a question of how do I do that and how do I achieve that?”

Right now, Haglund wants to enter an opera and vocal performance program, and is looking into universities like Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin; Eastman School of Music in New York and his former piano teacher’s school, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He plans to look more into schools these next few months.

“…I would love to find a really excellent teacher who can push me as much as Scott has pushed me,” Haglund said.

He wants to try to study multiple performance styles to make himself as versatile as he can for professional singing after college.

“And not only classical singing but also musical theater singing since it’s kind of not unknown news that it’s hard to make money as a musician,” he said. “It would be nice to have multiple options for singing like classical singing, musical theater singing, maybe even jazz singing, just really being as versatile as I can and finding a program that allows me to do that.”

But for now, he’s excited to be a small town kid for one more year before he follows his collegiate and professional dreams.

“Oh yes, oh my gosh yes…” Haglund said. “Part of me is like, ‘I’m ready to get out of Iowa and to broaden my horizons,’ but I’m also excited to have another year to grow and make connections and make friends, and do all that fun stuff that you do senior year.”