Two weeks ago, the choir program, led by Addie Akin, had their third concert of the year. After a full quarter of practicing and rehearsing, the singers were able to put on a show on March 11 in the theater. 

“The Choir program does about four concerts each year,” said Choir Director Addie Akin. “This third quarter concert was the third annual concert of the year.”

This concert, however, had a major difference. The show was a collaboration between SLUH and Cor Jesu. This is the third year that this collaboration has happened and Akin hopes to continue this trend because of the benefits.

 “It's a really great experience for the guys to get to sing with the girls and to learn from a different teacher,” said Akin.

The concert is structured into four parts, for the four levels of SLUH students in choir: Zero Hour choir, Concert Choir, freshmen choir and varsity choir. Each ensemble had individual songs that they learned.

Led by Cor Jesu Choir Cirector Kathleen Pottinger, wife of SLUH band teacher Jeff Pottinger, the Cor Jesu choir rehearsed the same songs as the SLUH choir in preparation for the concert. With the final ensemble of both choirs reaching about 100 kids total, practicing with the schools beforehand was implausible, so their first time singing together was the night of the concert. 

 “They learn everything separately, and then literally the day of the concert is the first time that we put everybody together and cross our fingers and hope that you know, everybody learned  the same way. It's a little scary just to hope that it works out,” said Akin.

Akin had nothing to worry about, though, as the practice throughout the quarter paid off. 

 “My favorite song of the whole concert was the very last song called “I’ll Fly Away.” And it's just a really fun gospel arrangement. That was a combined number with Korea and I played piano for that which I love. I love doing so it was a lot of fun,” said Akin.

Sophomore varsity chorister Tim Browdy noted how much he liked the collaboration between schools.

 “The concert was a super neat experience because of the contrast in sounds between both the Cor Jesu and SLUH choirs. In our two pieces that we did together it was breathtaking to hear the blending between male and female voices,” said Browdy. 

Junior Keller Anderson appreciated the variety of the selected music.

 “The two numbers with the Cor Jesu girls were great. We started with “Love Never Fails” by Brandon Heath which is a very poppy, singer-songwriter type of a song. We did a capella for that song,” said Anderson. “Then after that, we did a version of “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles, with a piano accompaniment by Mrs. Akin. We also did some older religious songs as well.”