Palo Alto High School’s Concert Choir, Madrigal Singers and Spectrum Singers earned three gold awards this weekend at the annual WorldStrides’ Heritage Festival in Anaheim, Calif.

“I am super proud of the group,” choir teacher Michael Najar said. “Even if they had not won an award, they would have ‘won’ in my opinion. They performed at their highest level.”

In addition to the three gold awards, the Concert Choir and Women’s Choir won first place overall. Paly was also awarded the Overall Choral Sweepstakes Award, granted to the choir with the highest average scores. According to the festival’s website, scores are determined by a panel of three adjudicators who oversee and offer advice to each choir after their performance.

“The pieces we sang, Bach and Mozart, are very difficult, high-level pieces,” choir student and junior Michelle Chen said. “The fact that we not only pulled it off but also received such good scores for our performance evaluation is a huge achievement.”

According to choir student and sophomore Anisha Patwardhan, practice was key to success at the festival.

“We tried to be extremely nitpicky in the last few weeks, and it paid off,” Patwardhan said.

In addition to performing in the festival, the choirs attended a workshop at the University of California, Irvine, and spent a day relaxing at Disneyland.