On Saturday, April 12, A Cappella Choir, Chamber Choir, Men’s Ensemble and Women’s Ensemble performed in the 2025 WorldStrides Heritage Festival Toronto Competition. All four groups received gold ratings, the highest a choir can receive, meaning each group had an average score above 90 points between the three observing judges.
Each judge gave a rating between 0-100, zero being the worst and 100 being perfection, and these were averaged out for the groups’ final scores. A Cappella Choir earned first place with an average score of 94.3. Chamber Choir scored 95, earning the Adjudicator Award, which is given to choral groups scoring above 95 points, a high honor. Also with honorable scores, Men’s Ensemble received a rating of 92.7 points and Women’s Ensemble earned 94 points.
“The whole reason of going to competition is so that way, when we can go and we can hear where our shortcomings are… to add those little nuggets that we’ve learned along the way,” choir director Joshua Dubs said. “That will take an already good performance and enhance it even more.”
A Cappella performed “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” by Z. Randall Stroope; “Set Me As a Seal” from “A New Creation” by René Clausen; and “Evocation,” written by Sowol Kim and set to music by Hye-Young Cho. Chamber Choir sang “I’m Gonna Sing ‘Til the Spirit Moves in My Heart” by Moses Hogan, featuring a solo by junior Kiera McPeek; “What Sweeter Music” by John Rutter; and “Jabberwocky” from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” and arranged by Sam Pottle. Men’s Ensemble performed “My Good Lord’s Done Been Here,” a traditional spiritual arranged by Stacey V. Gibbs; and “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” with words and music by Bob Dylan and arranged by Adam Podd. Women’s Ensemble sang “Dear John, Dear John (Punctuated by Love?)” by Stephen M. Hopkins; and “Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down,” a traditional spiritual arranged by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory.
On the evening of Wednesday, April 9, choir members loaded onto buses and departed for Niagara Falls, Ontario. After getting through the border late that night, they spent the morning and early afternoon of Thursday exploring Niagara Falls, ending their time there with Journey Behind the Falls, where they walked through tunnels built behind Niagara Falls. The rest of Thursday was spent travelling to Toronto, Ontario. On Friday, the choirs started their day with a tour of Toronto, visited Casa Loma, enjoyed lunch and shopping at the famous Eaton Mall, ate dinner at Boston Pizza and finished the day with the Off-Broadway version of “The Lion King” musical at The Princess of Wales Theatre. Saturday was competition day, then the choirs spent Sunday travelling back home.
“My favorite part of the trip was Niagara Falls,” senior Hayden Hemmings, a tenor in the choir, said. “I love nature, and the falls were such a sight to see. It was almost everybody’s first time seeing the falls, so it was awesome getting to experience it all together for the first time.”
The choirs will perform their competition pieces, along with additional scores, in the annual Spring Concert, which will be at 7 p.m. tonight in the auditorium. After such a successful competition in Toronto, Dubs has high hopes for the quality of the concert as the choirs continue to practice and improve.
“If we’re so close to perfect, why not be perfect?” Dubs said.
