Choir Students of Hinsdale Central High School have been preparing nonstop for the upcoming fall choir concert on Oct. 26 for their first live show since December of 2019 due to COVID-19.

Jennifer Burkemper, the Choir teacher, has spent every day for the past few weeks preparing her students in songs consisting of Greek, Bulgarian, and Russian. Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, these students have been putting their best foot forward to put out an amazing concert.

“All of the music was affected, but choir specifically was hit because students in middle schools didn’t sing in this area at all,” Burkemper said.

Burkemper has needed to take a bit of a different approach when it came to guiding her students through the songs as they have less experience.

The number of students in the younger choirs has actually decreased due to COVID. Burkemper said she is proud of both her younger students who have had to acclimate to the program with less experience as well as her older students who have had to participate in choir through a screen for the past two years. 

The younger students who were newly introduced to the high school-level choir have also enjoyed being able to be part of a community. 

“I would definitely say I feel part of the program,” said Samrah Syed, freshman.

She said she feels Burkemper has done an excellent job welcoming the students into the program and helping them based on their individual needs.

Some of the older students who have stuck to the choir program through the pandemic feel that this year is a much-needed change back to normalcy.

“It’s definitely a lot nicer this year that we can all sing together and be in the classroom,” said Vanessa Ivanov, senior. 

All of the choir, both younger and older, have been working hard and are excited to share this concert with their peers, teachers and parents.