For Eva Zizak ’25, music is like a second language. Growing up in a highly musical family — Zizak’s father is a guitarist — she found joy in singing from an early age, often having jam out sessions with her dad. This passion has led to her involvement in numerous vocal groups at PHS. Her love for singing ensures it will remain a central part of her life long after graduation.

How have you been involved with music at PHS?

A lot, a little too much. Sometimes my mom is picking me up after 11 o’clock from school, and she’s like, “So I think you sing too much,” and I’m like, “Yep, probably.” Sometimes I get a little sick of it, but in the end, it’s what I like doing. I do choir; freshman year, I did Chorale, then Cantus, then PHS Choir since last year. I’ve been in Cloud Nine, an a capella group, since my sophomore year — this year, I’m music director — and I did Studio Vocals last year. This summer, I went on tour with PJO, the Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra as a vocalist, so I went to Italy.

How has being involved with so many different activities helped you develop as a singer?

Well, I think practice makes perfect, or almost perfect, for sure, because I think I’ve definitely improved in the last few years. Just last night, I was looking at videos from the beginning of our tour this summer, and videos at the end of the tour, and I was cringing at my first videos, because I was like, “Oh my god, I was so bad.” The teachers here are so talented and so good at pushing you. This was my first year working with Mr. Bongiovi in Studio Vocals and in PJO, and even though he’s not a vocalist, he still did a great job ... I also think, being in groups of new people that [I’m] not friends [with] gives me a chance to be around other people, and I meet so many people. In [Cloud Nine], I have 12 built-in friends, and [in] Studio Vocals, I got to know a bunch of people. So I feel like I just got to find my crowd and just improve as a singer.

What are your duties as music director for Cloud Nine?

There are a few things. It is a student group because we don’t have an adult leading us, [so] there needs to be one person to [decide] if there’s a decision that needs to be made. I pick the music; I arrange the music too. I really like the idea of everybody in the group arranging music; I know that’s not something that all groups do. We have a couple people working on arrangements now. I’m arranging the music for the first concert. Organizing our meetings, and deciding what we do in each practice is the biggest [responsibility I have as music director].

What do you like about singing jazz specifically?

I think I’ve always kind of liked singing more jazzy songs, and I never really realized that until I was like “Oh I’m gonna audition for Studio Vocals,” and then I was doing it and [realized] this is my favorite kind of music to sing. I think jazz is the easiest and the hardest [music to sing], because anything kind of goes. You just have fun, and that’ll make you sound so much better, but I also think you have to adjust your voice a little bit, think about the lyrics more, [and] think about the song you’re singing. What I like about [jazz] is that I sort of found my place with my voice because I just found that it fit my voice really well.

Why do you sing?

I think a lot of it stems from my upbringing. This is a conversation I’ve actually been having with my dad a lot because I’m doing college applications now, so I have a bunch of questions to answer; colleges want to know what I’m about. So me and my dad were talking about it, and he [asked], “Do you know why we sing? What’s the point of it?” I [said], “To make people happy, to entertain.” That’s the point of singing. Obviously I [sing] for myself because I think it’s fun, but I think part of the reason why I think it’s so fun is because I love people that enjoy music; I think it’s really cool to watch people having a good time.