One month before heading off to Carnegie Hall, Mira Costa High School singers are hard at work perfecting their songs. A demo CD of the school's vocal ensemble earned all four choirs at Costa passage to the 2012 Carnegie Hall WorldStrides National Choral Festival.

"They never inform anyone about this until September," said choir director Michael Hayden. "But because of our excellence and superiority in our performance, we were the first choir to get this early notification."

The vocal ensemble enjoys the additional distinction of being one of two featured choirs at the event, beating out 15 to 20 other high schools for the honor.

"I've never sung in front of that many people, so it will be very life changing," said Amber VanBuskirk, an advanced women's choir and multicultural choir senior at Costa.

The choirs will hold a Carnegie Hall Send-off Concert on Feb. 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. Prior to New York, the vocal ensemble will perform at the American Choral Directors Association Western Division Conference in Reno. About 1,000 choral directors are expected to attend the March 1 concert.