When choir students walk into Haley Bovee’s classroom at the start of second period, they know what to expect. Class begins with sharing good things, and almost everyone has something to say. After this, they start stretching and breathing exercises. Although some students likely appreciate the stretches merely as a little break, it is actually an essential step in singing to begin setting up posture and breathing. The routine concludes with vocal warm ups, including lip trills, vowel exercises, and sirens.
This is how the class started each morning during their preparation for the Collage showcase on Dec. 6. For Collage, the choir sang “Imagine” by John Lennon, “A Million Dreams” from “The Greatest Showman” and “White Winter Hymnal” by Pentatonix.
“The Collage theme this year is ‘Dreamscape,’” said Bovee. “We’ve been thinking [about] imagination [and] fantasy.”
This was Bovee’s first Collage concert at ELHS, and she was very excited to carry on the tradition.
“I’m excited for our choir, but I’m also excited to hear the band and the orchestra,” Bovee said. “I think it’s cool to have all of the fine arts people all together in one performance.”
Bovee’s class is small, but many are very dedicated singers.
“The people who have kept with choir are really, really talented musicians,” Bovee said. “They’re all great kids. I love working with them every day.”
Fin McConnell (11) has been taking choir since seventh grade and also loves Collage.
“Collage is probably one of my favorite concerts that we do because you get to see all the other musicians,” McConnell said. “Everyone collaborated on something, and it’s really cool to see all of the effort that’s put in.”
Last year the choir class faced inconsistencies with many different subs after the previous choir teacher left mid-year. But according to current students, this year is going much better.
“It’s been a better environment, honestly,” said McConnell. “[It] used to be a bit more stressful. Ms. Bovee’s really cool and nice, and she brings a good environment to it because she doesn’t bring outside stress into the class.”
Choir student Maggie Walters (12) has been taking voice lessons since 2018. This is her fifth year in choir and so far she’s very happy with Bovee and her teaching style.
“Classes run a lot more smoothly, we get a lot more done, and there’s less downtime,” Walters said. “She’s a very positive instructor and is very caring and understanding, so I feel like it’s a good move for the program.”
Lily Shumake (11) has been taking choir since sixth grade and was influenced early on by her musically inclined family. She has also been liking choir with their new teacher, particularly how Bovee does the warm up every day at the start of class.
“I’m really enjoying it,” Shumake said. “I look forward to going to class every day. She’s amazing.”
Bovee has always loved choir, knowing she wanted to be a choir teacher in high school because of her choir teacher influencing her at the time.
“She’s a great woman [and] a great person, so I had the most fun in choir,” said Bovee.
After graduating from Western Michigan University in 2024, Bovee was on the job hunt and got her first official teaching position here this year. Collage was an exciting event for both her and the class.
“White Winter Hymnal” is a favorite Collage performance song among students. It was popularized by Pentatonix to use body percussion with the song. The choir did a lot of this in their performance, which required lots of practice of the song to be fully in sync.
“They do all this cool body percussion,” Bovee said. “So that’s really stretched us. I think that’s really our piece that I’m most excited to perform.”
After many weeks of preparing, the class finally felt prepared for the showcase.
“We’re small, but we’re mighty,” Shumake said. “I’m so excited to shock people a bit.”
