At De Soto High School, a group of audition selected students make up what is know as Voce. This gifted group highlights their talents at many events throughout the school year. As of the 2024-2025 school year, their numbers have nearly doubled.
Mindy Fry, the coach of Voce, attributes their near double in numbers to the chaos that began in 2020 and continues presently.
“There have just been a lot of things that have made it difficult for our program to recover but I feel like we are finally climbing out of that hole,” Fry Said “So while Voce did shrink a little bit last year due to some of those factors our program is finally grouping again so I like to call it rightsizing, coming back to normal.”
Having a smaller than average group of singers created problems during practices and events. Senior Renee Mitchell firmly believes that the expansion is one, if not the best, thing that could happen for the program.
“I’m really happy that Voce is a larger group this year. Last year, we only had 10 girls, which meant that if one or two people were gone, the entire sound of the choir was off. This year, we’re up to 23, which means we can tackle songs with more part splits and more people get to benefit from being in DHS’ top choir,” Mitchell said.
The hope is that the growth of Voce will lead to an expansion in all aspects of the choir department, benefiting not just Voce, but the department as a whole.
“Voce as the audition group tends to set the standard and set goals for the other younger or less experienced choirs to shoot for. So the stronger that group is it trickles down and the stronger everybody else will be,” Fry said.
Even though Voce has gotten bigger, the members of the group have still been singing together for a long time. The group’s bonds that have formed help them to perform even better on stage.
“They are also really supportive of each other so it’s going to be a really tight-knit group, and that’s what I’m excited about. We are here to build memories as well as skills,” Fry said.
Voce is more than just a singing group; it is a group of close knit people who all share a common interest. Voce forms a community of like-minded individuals pushing each other to be better, which draws more singers year after year.
“People should join Voce because it’s a great way to grow as a musician. Singing with other people who are really serious and passionate about music pushes you to be better in a way that you don’t always see in other choirs,” Mitchell said.
Not only does Voce foster a great community within the group and it helps everyone get involved in DHS activities at school. Junior Cadence Shrout believes that Voce has improved so many aspects of her high school career.
“It is a great experience to have. It is improving your vocal, your mental, experiences from the school. You are more involved. It’s great for resumes and you round out yourself as a student. It is an improvement in so many things and is overall just a good thing to do,” Shrout said.
Not only is Voce as a whole an exceptionally amazing group of wonderful, kind, and talented people, the singing that takes place within the class has a myriad of magnificent benefits as well.
“Music is really great for the brain and it releases dopamine just like exercise does. It makes kids feel better. It is stress relief…So I just think it is really important for students to build something into their day, whether that be choir, art, strength and conditioning. Something that allows them to mentally have a break, I just think those things are really important for students,” Fry said.
Overall, the expansion of Voce is wonderful for not only current students within the group, but for future students as well.
