For the eighteenth year in a row, choirs from local Catholic high schools joined in tune at Benaroya Hall on the first day of Catholic Schools Week on January 30.

Twelve hours before the start of the concert, Blanchet’s choir students started arriving at school to bus downtown.Over seven hundred students spent the day practicing at Benaroya Hall.

Bellarmine Preparatory’s choir filed onto the stage at Benaroya just after 7:00pm for the first number of the night.

Each of the ten schools performed one song each during the first act. Between each choral number, the school and song were announced on stage in an effort to be earth friendly and not print programs.

Bishop Blanchet was the last choir to perform before intermission. Choir director Becca Cantrell followed the amalgamation of Blanchet’s vocal ensemble, jazz choir, treble choir, and men’s choir on stage. Together, they performed “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson as arranged by former Blanchet choir director Craig Schell.

“I know [Schell] did a lot of awesome arrangements with this choir, and I wanted to kind of pay homage to him and pay tribute to the legacy that he built here,” said Cantrell.

Continuing Blanchet’s tradition, “Man in the Mirror” differed in genre from what other choirs sung. Under the direction of Dr. Twila McDonell last year, Blanchet sung “Somebody to Love” by Queen, and the year before they sung “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly under Mr. Schell.

“I love Blanchet’s songs especially since they’re always so like upbeat,” said Seattle Preparatory junior Aliyana Haag. “They definitely change the mood, and it’s an unexpected twist every year and it’s always so exciting.”

Meagan Hodgins and Maliko Madden started off the song with a short whistle solo followed by a duet featuring Natalie Gryniewicz and John O’Kane.

The second act included “The Star of Belle Isle”, “Nigra Sum”, and “Tell My Ma” sung by the girls from all ten schools, and “Laudate Dominum”, “Fergus an’ Molly”, and “Donkey Riding” sung by the boys from all ten schools. Three more songs were also sung by the more advanced voices from the schools.

The night ended with all choirs singing “Adoramus Te”, a new piece written by Vijay Singh – the night’s guest conductor.

“I was happy with it overall,” said Haag, “but it went really late.”

After a long day of practicing and performing, students were able to go home having sung their hearts out.