A group of Xavier students recently shared their talents outside of the walls of Xavier.

On April 7, Xavier’s chamber choir, Voce, embarked on a tour to Kansas City. The choir performed at three churches: St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Des Moines, Iowa, St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri, and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Independence, Missouri. Voce returned to Cedar Rapids on April 9.

42 choir students sang a program lasting about 60 minutes at each venue. Some of the songs included “Haec Dies” by William Byrd, “O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen, “O Vos Omnes” by Tomas Luis de Victoria, and “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying” by F. Melius Christiansen. The choir has been preparing for this opportunity and other performances since the beginning of the school year.

“Voce rehearses every Thursday evening for two hours, although we have lengthened rehearsals a bit the past few weeks in order to prepare for tour,” Xavier choir director Mr. Matt Walker said. “We sing all of our music memorized, so singing in the group requires a lot of preparation outside of rehearsal as well.”

The choir also prepared by performing in the Dorian Invitational Choral Festival at Luther College’s Center for Faith and Life in Decorah, Iowa on April 5, along with three other high schools. The high schools were invited to Luther to sing in one large choir under the direction of a Luther faculty member. “The Luther experience was pretty cool,” senior Luke Lesnik said. “We don’t often get to hear choirs from other schools, so I enjoyed hearing the three other choirs. The director at Luther, Dr. Andrew Last, who was previously a director at Xavier, has a way of making any group of singers sound 100 times better.” Voce also performed at Immaculate Conception on April 10 for their Homecoming Concert. Their next performance will be at the Spring Choir Concert at Xavier on May 8 at 7 p.m.