Choir Concert

By: Honor Tamminga

On Saturday, St. Helens High School choral group Choir Leonis joined the George Fox University (GFU) choir for a joint performance. Choir Leonis is directed by Eric Stearns, GFU master’s in teaching alumnus.

Danielle Warner, director of the GFU choirs, tries to partner with a high school choir each year. The selected high school choirs perform with one of the GFU choirs, allowing high school students to get a taste of what it is like to be in a collegiate choir. 

St. Helens High School has connections with GFU. Several current GFU students attended St. Helens High School, on top of the director’s alumni status, which made it an ideal pick.

Stearns and Warner are both passionate about the community that can be built out of a shared love of music and encourage everyone to sing. Saturday’s joint performance brought the two choirs together as a way to recognize and celebrate the unity that choral music brings.

“[The concert] is special because COVID has been particularly difficult for choirs,” Warner said. “And to have a guest choir on campus feels full of hope and is the start of other wonderful things to come!”

As the two-year anniversary of the initial COVID-19 lockdown approaches, this concert displayed that, despite an extended period of not being able to get together, things are slowly going back to normal, including important musical performances. Since the beginning of the pandemic, choral participation has fluctuated in its overall safety and restrictions on being in groups and public singing have at certain points been near impossible. On Saturday, the 100-member GFU choir joined by Choir Leonis reflected the resilience and unity of those within the music community to continue to share their gifts.