On October 27, 2021, Nederland Middle Senior High (NMSHS) hosted its first all-school choir concert since 2019. After a year of avoiding crowds, hearing the voices of 6-12th graders all in one room was even more powerful than usual.

Ms. Evans began the night with Born to Be Brave from the Treblemakers, the 6th grade choir. She let the audience know that the upcoming songs from the middle school choirs would stick to a much-needed theme of perseverance and encouragement. This theme was certainly kept up by the Altitunes (the 7th/8th grade choir) with the uplifting song Be a Light. The brilliant Festival Choir continued with Dust in the Wind, followed by The Wellerman, an energetic sea shanty sung by the Loquations.

The choirs continued to alternate in such a fashion, starting with the inspiring We Won’t Stop Dreaming, then the crowd pleasers California Dreamin,’ and Africa by Toto. The Loquations then picked up a more solemn theme with Come Home, a ghostly song with a foggy tone.

The choirs finished off with an inspiring series of the Treblemakers’ Shine Like the Stars, the Altitunes’ Waving Through a Window, Winter Wolf by the Festival Choir, and the stirring Woodsmoke and Oranges, closed with the Loquations’ lighthearted Build Me Up Buttercup.

The choir students of NMSHS worked hard for this concert, and though the 6th and 7th graders had never performed, Ms. Evans worked her magic, helping everyone find their voice in only a few months.