The music wing is full of life as students are playing instruments, practicing lines, and now singing and dancing. Both of City High’s show choirs are beginning to practice for the coming competition season: Fourth Ave with their theme Rise and Charisma with their theme entitled Daring to Dream.

“We have a really great group of singers, dancers who are really committed to the art form, but also to each other and [they] have really improved. I think that’s very exciting for us as we head into this season. So I think it’ll be a great, great year for us,” Fourth Ave’s director Tyler Hagy said. This is Hagy’s fifth year at City High and fifth year directing show choir at City High with prior experience directing show choir elsewhere.

Fourth Ave’s choreography camp went through late August. Songs like Eye of the Storm by Watt White and Rise Up by The Fat Rat tell a loose story about a town experiencing a flood after a destructive storm and the community coming back together to rebuild the town.

Eviann Smith ‘24 is a member of Fourth Ave. This is her fourth year involved with show choir. Her love of the competitions keeps her excited to improve even during tough practice. 

“It’s mentally and physically exhausting. We’re there for like eight hours till 10. It was the first week of school and everyone was so tired,” Smith said. “But you know, we came back the next day, came back stronger and better. We’re here to work.”

City High’s other show choir, Charisma, finished their choreography camp where they learned choreography for Stars by Pentatonix, Neverland by Zendaya, and two more songs fitting the theme Daring to Dream.

Charisma director Matthew Walker has been a part of City High show choir for three years, but has directed for over 10 years total. With an increase in members from last year, the group with over 40 members working together is exciting for Walker.

“So all [the songs] have sort of that theme of dreaming and thinking about the future and really anything is possible…people can be whatever they want to be if they put their mind to it and truly anything is possible if you’re willing to work and to just use your imagination,” Walker said. 

New Charisma member Jillian Leman ‘26 looks forward to meeting new people and building relationships, her favorite song so far being Dreamer by Axwell & Ingrosso. 

“I’m really excited to make new friends and just build good relationships with all the other people,” Leman said. 

Hazel Boerner ‘26, a member of Charisma, emphasized her love of singing and dancing giving her another reason to participate.

“I love music so it will be fun to dance more and sing more. It will just be fun to learn new things,” Boerner said. “I just always dance and I’ve always loved singing so it’s just kind of a natural thing.”

Both Fourth Ave and Charisma will have their first performances on October 24th at the Works in Progress showcase, with a few noncompetitive shows between Works in Progress and their first competition on January 14th. 

“You know, whether we get first place or 50th place that doesn’t really matter to me so much as whether we feel good about the show that we put on to the stage,” Hagy said. “And do we feel that we have improved as individual performers, singer dancers, and then as a whole group.”