The De Soto High School choirs recently performed in their first concert of the year on Oct. 17. However, it was unlike any one they had done before.

    This concert featured all four choir groups including De Soto Voce, Wildcat Chorale, De Soto Descants and the entry-level Choir Foundations class.

    “This is our first year that we have a new lineup of choirs. Our freshman group was split into a treble group and a tenor-bass group, which was nice to add that men’s choir to the mix,” choir director Mindy Fry said.

    These new groups, however, were not the only differences in this choir concert. The show also dealt with some of the more serious issues high schoolers face.

    “Over my 17 years of teaching, I have seen students struggle so much more with anxiety and depression, and I just think it’s something that needs to be talked about and addressed because it’s not going away,” Fry said. “It [mental illness] is not something that you can just brush under the rug. If we can even help one kid, then we [DHS choir] know that it was worth it.”

    The last song sang by Voce, featuring the Descants and Chorale, is part of a suicide-awareness organization that the choir has taken part in by featuring one of their songs titled Please Stay.

    “It’s an organization called ‘To Write Love On Her Arms’ and in conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day, they had a campaign called ‘And I Kept Living.’ People shared their stories and triumphs and that’s where the composer took the tweets and pieces of their stories and made them into lyrics for the song,” Fry said.

    When the song ended, some stood, moved by what they had just witnessed. An audience member even shouted “Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful.”

    “Overall, that song is really, really powerful,” said junior Voce member Chase O’Bannon. “Not only because of the message, but just how it’s sang and how it’s set up and the words in it.”

    With the current state of not only Johnson County Schools, but on the worldwide stage, DHS choir hopes to touch those in need of a voice.