The audience sat enraptured as the many melodious voices of South’s curricular choirs took them on a trip through the history of Disney, presenting songs from the 1920s to now, Choral Director Robert Shellard said.

Students from South’s four curricular choirs—Glee Club, Premier Chorus, Bel Canto Chorale, and Master Singers—performed in the Norman E. Watson Auditorium on May 11 for their final concert of the school year, Shellard explained. This was the first time in over 20 years that Master Singers performed in the Spring Choral Concert instead of the Master Singers/Orchestra concert, Shellard added. It deviated from the traditional choir concert format; instead of performing sets, where each choir performed their whole repertoire before moving on to the next group, song order was dictated chronologically from publication, and groups were mixed for some songs, Shellard said.

“There is representation from all time periods of Disney, so we have the early years [through] current [Disney] endeavors,” Shellard said. “We have not covered every single Disney movie because there are so many, [so] we tried to hit the big ones.”

Shellard was most excited to see “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns come to life in a choir setting.

“[‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’] was a song that I had fallen in love with, so I [made] a custom arrangement for Master Singers [that] fit their voices,” Shellard said. “[The song] takes the listener on a journey throughout the song and it is a bit different than how the movie song [sounds], so I was excited to see that come together.”

Senior Ellie Donahue, Master Singers member, enjoyed the sense of community and the happy ending to the year the concert provided.

“I [enjoyed] this concert because it felt like a finite, uplifting way to end the year,” Donahue said. “It was a nice way to come together with everybody one last time before the summer [and] for seniors [to say goodbye] before they leave for college.”

Senior Peter Canalia, Master Singers member hopes that even though this concert was his last in high school, he can continue to participate in choir in the future.

“It is sad leaving [high school choir],” Canalia said. “[Choir has had] a very big impact on me, and I hope it can continue to make an impact on me [in the future].”