For many musically-inclined students, choir at L-S provides a class to pursue a love of music, with a like-minded, supportive community. In choir, students from different grades, who may not have much else in common academically, athletically, or socially, come together with the singular intent to produce good music.

A typical class starts with vocal warm ups to prepare the voice. Then, the class is spent singing the musical pieces that have been selected by the Choral Director, Mr. Bunting or voted upon by the students. “As Choral Director I have to know a lot of different pieces to know what would be a good challenge for this group,” explains Bunting. “I feel that it is important for the students to have some say, sometimes in which song we’re singing next because I feel that helps the students feel more ownership of the group and the program, so that hopefully people are more invested in the group as a whole.”

Choir at LS also provides students the opportunity to work together in small self-led groups. As opposed to middle school chorus, where most music was learned under close teacher supervision, high school choir students learn and rehearse their music within their voice section, under the leadership of an elected “section leader”. The voice parts (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) are dependent on how high or low your singing voice is. Section leaders mentor younger singers and are experienced musicians. With their voice sections, students help each other learn the songs. Choir vice-president, Shani Dar, explains, “I like learning new warm-ups, practicing a large variety of scales, doing listening exercises, working on sight reading, and of course, getting to sing at concerts after we have finished learning a piece of music. It’s also a lot of fun to get to work on lots of different styles of music that come from different time periods and sometimes other languages.”

Choir presents additional leadership opportunities, with elections for choir president, vice-president, and secretaries. Each with their own unique roles and responsibilities, leaders assist with instruction and learning. Extracurricular opportunities for choir are also available. Similar to concert choir and treble choir, which meet as classes, Mr. Bunting offers an auditioned choir, called Chamber Choir. Acapella groups also meet after school, and are led by student presidents.

In the words of Jackson Hild, LS Choir president, “Part of what makes choir such a great class is that you get to develop your singing skills, of course, but you also learn a bunch of skills that pertain to other parts of daily life. Choir, in essence, is learning how to work as a member of a team. Members of a choir will lift up people on their bad days and help students go above and beyond on their good days.”

You can come see the talent of our L-S performers at the following upcoming events.

• Thursday December 1:  Pops Concert: Concert & Symphonic Bands, Orchestra, Concert & Treble Choir at 7:30PM
• Wednesday December 21: Concert Choir Holiday Informal Concert, @ A-B connector during block 7