St. John's choir uses CBC Music Canadian Class Challenge to get its groove back

The Holy Heart Chamber Choir cracked the top ten of CBC Music's Classroom Challenge but the process helped get the students out of their shells.

Holy Heart Chamber Choir had a good time covering Trooper

Jeremy Eaton · CBC News · Posted: Dec 18, 2022 6:30 AM EST | Last Updated: December 18, 2022

The Holy Heart Chamber Choir at rehearsal earlier this month. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

Holy Heart of Mary High School's chamber choir cracked the top 10 of CBC Music Canadian Class Challenge — and the experience helped the students come out of their shells, says the choral director.

After a few years of on-again, off-again, online learning, Robert Colbourne said he noticed his choir seemed a little flat.

"There was a certain amount of hesitancy among the students," Colbourne said in a recent interview. "They were afraid to sing out, they were afraid to move when they were singing, they were they were kind of like, for lack of a better word, zombies."

Holy Heart is no stranger to the challenge, having won their categories in 2017, 2019 and in 2020.

But when the pandemic hit they took a break from making videos for the annual national event, which invites school bands and choirs to make a video of their performance of a song from a list of selections by Canadian artists.

When the music list dropped earlier this year, Colbourne felt it was time to do it again — and the choir recorded their take on Trooper's rock classic We're Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time) in September.

"As you can see from looking at the video, I mean the joy that's in their faces, it's pure, like they're out of their shells again, and that was the goal," he said.

Holy Heart Chamber Choir members Connor Fagan and Lindsay Clarke speak to the media about how the video was a wonderful experience. — Holy Heart Chamber Choir members Connor Fagan and Lindsay Clarke called the video a wonderful experience. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

With arrangement help from an American composer named David Allan and video and editing handled by St. John's company Lee Creative, the choir got back to doing what they loved.

"It felt like a release and we didn't even think about the fact that we were making a video — just having fun with our friends" said Grade 11 student Lindsay Clarke.

The choir finished in the top 10 in the senior vocal category, which was won by Winnipeg's J.H. Bruns Collegiate.

You can watch the video below to see how much fun Holy Heart's choir had.