Soft, angelic voices fill the air, forming a lovely melody sung by Northwood’s Viva Cantar and Chamber Singers at Concordia University on Nov. 2 and 3 respectively. This collegiate choir festival is a ten-year tradition for Northwood’s choirs. Here’s what the singers had to say about some of the brilliant pieces they prepared for the festival.

Chamber

“‘​​Sicut Cervus’ was my favorite piece from our festival. Through a beautiful cascading effect from the different voice parts, it taught our choir how to listen to one another’s parts to create phrases and dynamic contrasts. Knowing the meaning behind the lyrics and what they meant to us allowed us to paint a picture and connect to our audience gracefully.” — Gaya Kalyan (12) 

“​​‘Past Three A Clock O’Clock’ is an old English Christmas carol and our version is by John Rutter, which is the most well-known version of the carol. It’s the most fun song out of the three that we sang at the festival because it has a childlike feel of sneaking downstairs to peek at presents. And of course, Ellie Chan has their great solo at the beginning which they always kill.” — June Lee (11)

Viva Cantar

“I felt as though our choir as a whole loved the piece, and that really showed when we performed it. Since it was our opener, we were all super energetic throughout the song.” — Anthara Thirupathi (11)

“My favorite song that we performed at the concert was a piece from the movie ‘Harriet’ called ‘Stand Up.’ The song is very meaningful and powerful, which made it very impactful to us.” — Maya Iyengar (9)

“I choose songs that I think the kids will like, songs that are good for their developing education as singers,” Choral Music Director Zach Halop said. “A huge piece for me is also programming music that I think the audience will like to hear because if audiences like to hear it, then they want to hear our group sing.” 

If you would like to hear these talented singers for yourself, the groups above as well as three other choirs will be holding their first concert of the year on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Northwood theater.