The first choir concert of the school year brings students of all ages together for the district vocal concert. Students taking choir are required to attend the concerts, which are scattered throughout the year, according to choir director John Myskowski.

Myskowski said he returns for his 10th year in the choir program.

“We just finished up the District Choral Festival with the middle school choirs, and that gave us the opportunity to get one of our Large Group Contest pieces learned and performed already, so that’s a plus,” Myskowski said.

Senior Lexie McChesney said she returns for her fourth year in choir and Park Singers as an alto.

The students in Park Singers have additional practices to perfect the songs being performed, according to McChesney.

“We had rehearsal a few Thursday mornings, as well as Mondays, and we would rehearse together for about an hour-and-a-half,” McChesney said.

McChesney said the choir sang Baba Yetu, a traditional translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Swahili.

McChesney said she feels pleased with how the performance turned out, considering the short amount of time the students had to practice.

“I think we could always have more time to prepare for the district vocal festivals because we perform so early in the year,” McChesney said. “Given that we didn’t have much time to prepare, we did pretty well.”

Myskowski said students from grades 6-12 came together to share vocal skills acquired in the first part of the year.

“Nearly all of my middle school choir students commented that they thought varsity was one of the highlights of the festival, so that’s a great way to introduce the middle school students to the fun of singing well as an ensemble at the high school,” Myskowski said.