The Southwest choir department had its first concert of the year on Thursday, October 9th. After a mere month of rehearsing, each choir presented their own separate piece, as well as learning and performing one song all together. It was about 45 minutes long and a lovely showcase of what the Southwest choirs have to offer. The concert opened with a full group number called I Dream a World. Its text was written by Langston Hughes and it was arranged by André J. Thomas. It also supported the central theme of the concert, which was inclusivity, unity, and peace. The night kicked off the performing arts year and it’s shaping up to be a great one!

Southwest has a variety of different choirs, split up by both grade and skill levels. Cantar, the freshman choir, is open to anyone interested in joining. They sang a piece called Riversong by Roger Emerson. Rachel Craig, (‘29) says, “I think the concert went really well and Cantar…did really well, even though we only had a short period of time.” The next grade up in the choir community is Coro Voce, which is audition-based and open to sophomores only. In addition to the opening number, Coro Voce sang Good Timber Grows, also by Roger Emerson. It was completely a cappella, meaning there was no instrumental accompaniment provided. If you’re a freshman or a sophomore and interested in even more choir, you can audition for Southwest Honor Choir, or SHoCk. Their rehearsals begin later in the year and they unfortunately do not perform at the first concert. 

There’s even more choral opportunities for upperclassmen at Southwest. As a junior or a senior, you can audition for Southwest Singers, which is a joint-grade choir. This year, Southwest Singers’ numbers rose dramatically. They had more than 90 people onstage singing and performing the song Hlonolofatsa (which was a capella and featured four soloists). In fact, the entire choir department had an increase of around 30 singers since last year. There’s one choir that has a strict capacity limit, though. 

Chamber Singers are the most selective and elite choral group that Southwest has to offer. It consists of 24 singers selected via an extensive audition process. Mr. Fisher has to work incredibly hard to find the perfect blend and balance between voices. In fact, there’s often only three singers per vocal part and harmony! These intricate factors were on full display in their song I Love My Love by Gustav Holst. It was a beautiful piece with multiple layers that showed off the strength of this top choir. Performing their own song was not all of the chamber singers’ favorite part of the concert though. Ava Murphy, (‘27) said, “My favorite part of the concert was being able to see Cantar performing for the first time as well as the growth Coro Voce has shown since last year.” This sentiment is shared by many others in choir, and illustrates what a valuable community the choral department is here at Southwest. 

All of this music (not to mention robes, tours, and other choir resources) isn’t cheap. The Southwest Performing Arts Council (or PAC) have been working hard to fundraise and crowdsource donations. They’re currently running a Fall Fundraiser through all choir, band, guitar, orchestra, jazz, and dance students. Each student has an individual link where family and friends can contribute online donations. These departments also perform at the Hot Notes fundraiser in the winter and sell Butter Braids to continue helping the arts programs at Southwest grow. 

All in all, this recent choir concert was a very promising beginning to the 2025-2026 performing arts school year. If you missed this one, you can catch all of the Southwest music students at Orchestra Hall this December. It’s incredibly important to continue supporting the arts programs that SWHS has to offer, because they’re producing some truly wonderful things. We hope to see you at the next concert!