“Music is accessible. It just grabs ahold of us. . . . There’s something almost mysterious in how music affects people.”
The Wheaton College Concert Choir frequently performs at regional and national conventions, leads worship in churches, and performs with professional ensembles. They also perform in more unconventional situations, from soup kitchens and furniture stores to public lectures and prisons.
This fall, as part of the Choir’s annual service weekend, they visited Golder College Prep High School in Chicago, where Wheaton alumnus David Batdorf is Choir Instructor. Motivated by a belief in the transformative power of music, the purpose was to create a shared musical experience and help high school students learn more about musical opportunities available to them in a college setting.
They began as Concert Choir and Golder College Prep, but by the end of an afternoon of singing together, they had grown into a single group of people making music and trying to understand each other better through that process. Unified by the joy and power of corporate music-making, the trip was an opportunity to bless and be blessed.