Even though she has made a name for herself on campus as a Singing Sooner — both as the official OU chant singer and a member of several choral groups on campus — vocal music education senior Kayley McCoy says her Sooner pride makes her stand out back home in Stillwater.

“It’s a bigger deal for my hometown to come here than it is to be here and be from there,” she said about her town, home of OU’s rival Oklahoma State. “It’s really weird.”

Still, McCoy’s Stillwater roots didn’t hold her back from pursuing a career as a music teacher or getting involved with the School of Music’s choral program.

Even before she changed to a music education major her sophomore year, McCoy was a member of University Chorale, one of the choral program’s eight student groups.

Director of Choral Activities Richard Zielinski came to OU last year with the goal of reorganizing the School of Music’s choral program to make it a top educational program.

Now that auditions ended last week, Zielinski said, all of the choirs might be close to having more than 300 students.

“In the choral area, our job is to offer choral music that covers the wide range of choral music that’s been written,” Zielinski said while on a break from auditions in his office, which has been taken over by stacks upon stacks of sheet music.

His ceramic dog Mex, OU’s first mascot, proudly squats on his desk in the corner.

“My philosophy is the music major that comes through here needs to have the opportunity to sing large works … and also should be experiencing music from all the stylistic periods.”

McCoy said the School of Music recognized her talent with children and as a singer and encouraged her to make a career as a vocal education major.

Music was a passion for McCoy. She said it wasn’t something she necessarily wanted to pursue.

“There were a lot of people in the music department and mentors I had on campus that really encouraged me and pointed out those things I sometimes don’t see in myself,” McCoy said. “[Dr. Zielinski] comes to work every day and you can just tell he loves what he’s doing. They have made it was it is.”

McCoy has continued this passion with the Singing Sooners — now the women’s show choir class in the School of Music.

The Singing Sooners class is the counterpart to the men’s glee club, Oh By Gum. Both ensembles require auditions, but are open to music and non-music majors.

“It’s extremely inclusive, and there’s so many opportunities,” McCoy said.

Ian Gill, a choral conducting second-year grad student, also didn’t wait long after coming to OU to take advantage of the School of Music’s opportunities.

Gill is a member of three choral groups: University Chorale, the Oh By Gum class and the OU Choral Union.

He said the combined men and women’s glee club performs more popular, new forms of music, like musical theater, vocal jazz and even OU spirit songs.

“What we planned with the Singing Sooners last year — it was a men and women’s choir — [was] we basically tried to revive these songs,” Gill said.

Even though the two clubs have different rehearsal schedules, the group members are getting to know one another.

“You get to know people in a different sense when you perform music with them,” Gill said. “You get to see who someone is on a completely different level in a musical ensemble.

“It’s good to have that camaraderie between people.”