Every year in fall, all the middle and high schools of the Parkway district perform at a vocal concert in the Touhill Performing Arts Center. This year, on October 25, all the juniors and seniors of the PCHS concert choir performed at this concert alongside their peers from the counterpart schools of the district.

Junior Jahden Jones-Brown, a tenor in the choir, believes that this concert was a great experience.

“It’s a really good experience. You’re also there with people from North, West, and South. So it’s really good to introduce yourself to them and you can make friends,” Jones-Brown said.

In addition to rehearsing and performing with the concert choirs of the other Parkway high schools, he also enjoyed seeing the middle-schoolers perform.

“We got to see the eight graders perform as well. It’s so nice to see them and see how they’re progressing and how they will one day come to their high schools and perform the same show as the high school concert choir,” Jones-Brown said.

Junior Malini Satheeskumar, an alto in the choir, also enjoyed the concert. 

“We got to practice with choirs from other schools and we got to work with this really great director. He really helped us bring our voices out. It was a fun experience,” she said. “Just being up on a big stage, especially the one at UMSL, the sound resonates so well in the theater.”

According to Ben Silvermintz, the choir director at PCH, the choir students practiced daily for this concert.

“Being a musician, you’re constantly doing live work and so that’s super fun and a good challenge . . .  so we rehearse everyday . . . The kids are good singers and good musicians, so we were in good shape,” Silvermintz said.

Since the school-shooting at CVPA, just a day prior to the concert, the people of St. Louis were left shocked and hurt. Jones-Brown thinks that the concert helped to alleviate the mood of the audience after that painful incident. 

“We had a lot of slow songs and also a lot of fast songs. So, whatever someone needs to hear, whether it be a fast song or a slow song, whatever they needed to help with their emotional states, those songs definitely helped.”

Additionally, there was a moment of silence held in the midst of the concert to pay respects to the lives that had been lost the day before.

“We had a moment of silence and I think that was just really respectful,” Satheeskumar said.

 “The reality of the world we live in is that every single day, something bad happens somewhere,” Silvermintz said. “It just happened to hit close to home the day before. But our students have seen that — that’s the world they live in, you know. It kind of is what it is.”