The spring choral concert featured a variety of music and a special presentation of slam poetry by junior JaNay Adgers for the final show of the year.

The concert included the Baker University Concert and Community Choirs, along with the Baldwin City Children’s Choir and the Labette County High School Choirs.

The concert began with a song in Swahili which translated to the “Lord’s Prayer.” It was sung by the concert choir with percussionists playing drums in the background.

The community choir joined the concert choir for the second song before taking the stage for the next three pieces. The concert choir came back out to sing two more pieces that left the audience in a somber mood.

“We sang two pieces that were very emotional,” senior Scott Ireland said. “One was called, ‘A Child’s Prayer.’ That featured a soprano duet with seniors Margo Rodewald and Marlee Johnson and our other piece was a Renaissance one that had a really moving feeling behind it and left some of the audience members in tears.”

To keep the concert moving along, the Baldwin City Children’s Choir sang two pieces. Labette High School also performed four pieces to add variety to the concert.

To end the show, the concert choir came back out for two more pieces. Ireland had the chance to conduct one of the pieces performed.

“I conducted the first song we sang, which was titled the ‘Stars Stand Up In the Air’ that was a very emotional song because of the story behind it,” Ireland said. “This was my favorite piece of the night because it takes so much emotion and work from yourself to get the sound you are looking for from the choir and I just felt like I poured my soul into my conducting.”

Adgers brought a different element to the concert by performing a slam poetry piece that Director of Choral Activities Matthew Potterton thought had such a moving message, he personally asked her to be a part of the night.

“He heard my piece at the pep rally during the diversity week,” Adgers said. “He was really moved by it and asked me to be a part of the concert because it tied into the message of the song ‘Inscription of Hope’ that was sang by the Community Choir.”

Her poem was titled ‘I Sing’ and Adgers said it means, “I sing because I am happy, but I write because I have pain and want to talk about it; want to talk about the issues of the world.”

Senior Brittany Hines was pleased with the performances of the Baker and guest choirs.

“I was actually really impressed of how the concert went overall and it seemed like the audience, along with the choir members, really enjoyed it,” Hines said.