In an effort to raise money for the choir and their February 2027 trip to Ireland, the choir put on a Queen concert on March 5 in the high school auditorium.
According to Director of Choral Activities Ryan Carlin, Ireland’s lack of a language barrier and older spaces, such as cathedrals, make it a perfect place for the choir’s first international trip.
“I don’t want to say it’s once in a lifetime, but it’s a very few in a lifetime opportunity,” Carlin said.
According to junior Liam Connolly, the trip will offer a new opportunity for student travel.
“I didn’t think I was going to go on a school trip. I just didn’t see the point,” Connolly said, “but this year I just really wanted to, and the Ireland trip came up. I’m super excited, especially because I’ve never been out of the country before.”
According to Carlin, since the spring and winter concerts are open to everyone, he decided to add an additional concert to reduce students’ travel costs.
“This extra concert [is] a fundraiser for the choir, in general, but also for our Ireland trip that we’re doing next year,” Carlin said. “A little over half the choir is signed up to go for a week, and we’re doing performances over there, so a chunk of the money fundraised is going to go to the trip and reducing the cost for everybody.”
However, this concert is not only a fundraising opportunity.
The concert allows the choir kids an additional opportunity to showcase their work.
“It is nice that parents are getting to see their kids perform more,” senior Halli Spears said. “We have the opportunity to perform more, which is the whole point of being in the class. This gives us more chances to sing.”
Carlin feels that by performing songs by the popular band Queen, the concert provides a way to differentiate itself from the music performed at previous concerts.
“Their music is just as vocal-heavy as pop and rock music gets. That’s what makes them so iconic, is how many different vocal layers they have on there,” Carlin said.
According to Carlin, he wanted a concert that would bring in more of an average music listener, something more “pop-oriented” and “commercial.”
The shift in genres is not only a change for the audience, but also for the students in the choir.
“It is super fun to do something that’s choir related, but not all choral music,” sophomore Aisling Shelly said. “It is nice to have this concert in between to make it more different and fun.”
According to Carlin, while Queen’s music is already very popular, hearing the music sung live by a choir will be a unique experience with “big, powerful sound.”
“It is really different to hear [Queen] in your headphones, and then over a hundred people singing,” Carlin said. “Once it’s up on that stage and there’s mics and the band going, it’s just going to be huge.”
I think just the scope of it has been my favorite part.”