Auditions: Saturday, November 15, 2025 @ Clearview HS

SJCDA hosts two choral festivals a year for the students of South Jersey.  The first is the All South Jersey Junior and Senior High Chorus Festival. This festival is open to singers in grades 7 through 12. Students are sponsored for this event by their choir teachers; those teachers serve as both the audition panels and chaperones for rehearsals and concerts. This event begins with in-person auditions at a local high school, using specific audition materials found in a packet that goes live every September.  If selected, students attend five rehearsals held at local high schools and colleges, culminating in a weekend of concerts at the end of January. 

Conductor: 2026 Junior High Conductor & Repertoire

Mr. Matthew Guerrasio is the Choir and Musical Theater Director at Fernwood Avenue Middle School and Miller Elementary School in Egg Harbor Township. Since joining the Fernwood staff in 2012, he has expanded the choral program from a small extracurricular ensemble into a vibrant feeder program featuring multiple curricular choirs, advanced auditioned groups, and contemporary a cappella ensembles. Prior to his work in Egg Harbor Township, Mr. Guerrasio taught in Cherry Hill and Wildwood Crest, where he also guest-directed the Cape May County Honors Choir.  He has led large-scale performances, including conducting over 300 singers and instrumentalists for the 2018 EHT National Anthem Project, and has served as the Elementary Manager for the South Jersey Choral Directors Association since 2019. Dedicated to supporting future music educators, Mr. Guerrasio regularly mentors pre-service teachers and has presented his workshop Fill Up Your Plate: A Back-to-Basics Guide to Repertoire Selection at the 2020 NJMEA Conference and for the Rowan University chapter of ACDA. Outside of music, he is an avid trivia competitor—appearing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2011 and ranking as high as 481st in the World Quizzing Championships. A proud Disney dad, board game enthusiast, and devoted husband, he lives in Egg Harbor Township with his wife Rebecca and their daughter Kayla. Concert Repertoire.

Akeko Ofana No Jesu

Arr. Daniel Jackson

Hope for the World

Jacob Narverud

Witness

Arr. Dick Bolks

Measure Me, Sky

Elaine Hagenberg

Africa

Arr. Roger Emerson

Praise His Holy Name

Keith Hampton

Better (Combined with Sr. High)

Arr. Frances Fonza Smith