This past Friday, CVUSD’s various choir ensembles took the stage on a rainy night to support local charities in an annual Benefit Concert. 

As attendees entered through the foyer, they were greeted by tables of eye-catching gift baskets, those which would be raffled away by a selection of purchasable raffle tickets after the show.

“Each section has to create a raffle basket of different topics,” said Ariana Morales (11). “My section this year did boba and fashion, so it’s always fun to bond with each other because we usually have to go out together and pick out things to put the basket together.”

If you’ve ever been to an Ayala choir performance, you can easily tell how passionate they are for their children and for the program in general. So passionate, in fact, that extra chairs needed to be placed towards the back of the room in order to accommodate the masses that arrived in support. 

Of course, the main idea of the Benefit Concert was to support local charity Small Town, Big Hearts which strives to aid people with cardiovascular conditions with defibrillators and proper training on how to use these mechanisms, as well as many other life-saving training.

“It’s really important because a member of our choir lost their brother to a heart condition suddenly over this past summer,” said choir director Mr. Davis. “And so we really want to make sure that we can try to give back and do great things for them.”

As various choir sections performed their array of songs, onlookers were able to see and hear the hard work that was put into this marvelous show and the various emotions they were able to pull from their audience. From the intimate serenade of jazz ensemble’s “When The Party’s Over” to the comedic relief of “Manly Men” by men’s ensemble, the elicited emotions were quite certainly worth the price of admission. 

“I think the thing that got us hype was also singing the music for everyone, seeing everyone’s reaction like ‘Manly Men’, we saw the crowd’s reaction [laugh],” said Vian Valenzuela (11). “I think that’s just a major passion that we all love.”

Although the choir ensembles are the main course of the metaphoric meal, the figurative chef also deserves recognition. Ms. Gordon, the piano accompaniment for Ayala’s choir, was given a special gesture of appreciation after her final accompaniment of the night. 

“All of the student leaders that we have within the program, starting with our student directors, do amazing work that people never really see on the surface level, but it goes much deeper than that,” said Davis. “And they’re really the people that help us get musically to where we need to be, and they support everybody in the program.”

Davis was not the only one, however, that recognized the work done by student leaders to elevate the choir program to their prestige as a whole, especially to the recent Benefit Concert.

“[I] definitely feel the exec board as a whole can be a little underappreciated. They do a lot behind the scenes and they give their own time,” said Morales. “They get ready quicker just so they can go help.”

For as much as they all hope to gain, the catalyst for their efforts has always been to give back. From time spent outside of school to assemble appealing gift baskets to be raffled away, to simply being in class every day practicing to perform a picture perfect show, choir’s dedication and attention to detail has only been exemplified by their efforts of restitution.

Davis said it best, “I think giving back is really important because it shows everybody that we’re all connected in some way, and we have to help out everybody around us, not just be selfish.”