The Glenwood Springs High School Choir was one of a select few choir programs across North America to be invited to the 2025 Aloha State Choral Festival from March 13th-18th.

They will host the “Choir Night at the Vaudeville” Saturday, Feb. 8 to simultaneously fundraise for their trip and promote the new spring show at the Vaudeville.

“It’s a partnership with John at the Vaudeville,” GSHS Choir Director Shanti Gruber said. “I’ve worked with him many times, and he’s a great supporter of our music program. So it’s a win-win for both of us.”

The Aloha Festival is as much of a cultural immersion program then it is a singing festival. Students will be immersed in a culture that has been widely suppressed since Hawaii was granted statehood in 1959.

“It’s a national festival, so choirs from all over the country get together and they get to perform individually and then as a mass choir,” Gruber explained. “It’s a cultural immersion. So we get to learn a lot about the Hawaiian native culture and learn the native music.”

Saturday night’s choir night will be like a normal night at the Glenwood Vaudeville Review with an extra sprinkle on top. The doors will open at 6 p.m., with the youth choir taking the stage at 7 p.m. to welcome in the audience. 

“It will be a normal Vaudeville night,” Gruber said. “It’s their new spring show, so we’ll sing a couple songs at the start to welcome everyone in. We’ll announce that it’s a fundraising event for the choir, and then the show will go on as usual.”

The choir team has been fundraising since the beginning of the school year, and are approaching the point that will comfortably send them across the ocean. Saturday will be their final public fundraising event. The program will continue raising money through concession sales at sports games, and their annual “Sing-a-Gram’s” where secret admirers can send their significant others love songs on Valentines Day. 

It will be the first time that a GSHS choir team will make the trip across the Pacific and be able to participate in the Aloha Festival, but it isn’t the first time they have partnered with Choirs of America. In 2018, GSHS singers and choir director Shanti Gruber lived out their childhood dreams by performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Now, seven years later, high schoolers from Glenwood Springs will fly eight hours across the ocean to fall into an unimaginably different culture. 

“The festival focuses on fostering cultural connections and appreciation, and offers participating choirs an opportunity to participate in evaluated performances, collaborative experiences, and culturally-relevant workshops led by some of the most renowned teaching artists in the country,” Choirs of America states on their website.

Students will be able to explore the beautiful island of Oahu while getting a rare first hand opportunity to further understand the unique Polynesian culture. Some of the opportunities they get include but are not limited to: a tour of the Pearl Harbor Memorial, guided bus tours to secret and sacred spots around the island, time to spend on beaches, visiting cultural centers, immersive group dinners and luau’s, and the opportunity to perform in the historic Kawaiaha’o Church. 

“It means the world to me that I get to be a part of such an amazing opportunity to not only do what I love, but also to travel and share it with others who also love singing and music as much as I do,” Glenwood senior Samara Kallal said. 
For those wishing to attend the concert, visit gvrshow.com. Those unable to attend but still wishing to donate can do so by contacting Glenwood Springs High School at 970-384-5555.