Tonight, at 7:00 p.m. in the P.A.C. the Blue Valley Northwest Choral department is having the Fall Choral Concert. Conducted by choir director, Beth Richey-Sullivan, audience members should expect to hear all five choral ensembles as well as a few combined numbers.

Richey-Sullivan said they have been working on vocal technique in class in order for her students to reach their highest potential.

“Tonight is about that voice expressing something and so I hope the audience walks away feeling an impact on themselves,” Richey-Sullivan said.

As well as working on vocal technique, Junior Declan Franey, a member of the Chamber Choir, said a few other professionals helped prepare them for their concert.

“Dr. Knect, our accompanist is extremely helpful,” Franey said. “We also had Mrs. Chamberlain, a native Spanish speaker, come in and help us with our pronunciation on ‘Llega la Hora,’ a spanish song.” 

Other than Chamber’s professional help, Chorale also had multiple composers and professionals come into the classroom to help them prepare according to Franey.

In class the choir department made paper cranes. Richey-Sullivan explained they are singing a piece called “Paper Cranes,” which is about a little girl in Japan who was 2 when the United States bombed Hiroshima, Japan. The little girl survived but when she was 11, she contracted Leukemia and passed away. However, while she was sick she folded over a thousand paper cranes and an old japanese folklore said if you fold a thousand cranes your wish will come true. The little girl’s wish was not to feel better or to not have cancer, but for world peace.

“We folded paper cranes in honor of her and our message of peace,” Richey-Sullivan said.

Tonight it is expected for Chorale to close the concert with a piece about Beethoven losing his hearing, according to Richey-Sullivan.

“It’s a piece written based upon a letter that he wrote to his brother when he was going deaf and they have set a portion of this letter to music. It’s really powerful,” said Richey-Sullivan.

Franey also voiced his excitement to hear chorale sing “A Silence that Haunts Me.”

“I haven’t been able to hear how all the ensembles sound, so it will be cool to hear everyone for the first time in a concert,” Franey said.

This is the first of the concerts the Choir department will perform this year. A performance at the Oxford Middle School/ Harmony Middle School Choir Concert is anticipated on Oct. 15, as well as another winter performance later in the year.

“Our goals are just to create a safe space for people to sing, to be themselves, to create great music, and we develop the skills for which they can use their individual voices,” said Richey-Sullivan.