The Allen Choir program will be hosting the Encore showcase on April 29 and April 30 in the Performing Arts Center. The two-day event will feature both the Encore choir and band and will be accompanied by the Jazz band and Chamber Choir. Tickets can be purchased on the PAC’s website; they are $5 for students, $10 for adults and can be purchased at the door as well.

The showcase is an opportunity for Encore students to sing popular and classic songs, according to choir director Kathryn Kendall. Along with them, the jazz band and Chamber choir will sing their own pieces.

“It’s a really great, upbeat program that features a lot of our talented, young musicians,” Kendall said.

The show also gives opportunities to students in Technical Theater who are doing light design and are the backstage managers during the show.

“But there’s a lot of work behind the scenes, a lot of work [is] done by technical theater students who are running lights and doing the light design for the show as well as being a backstage manager,” Kendall said. “They’ve got a lot of those students involved, and they’re still working.”

The choir and band have been practicing and learning the songs since January.

“We got this music at the very beginning of the semester, and so for basically every class we’ve had since the beginning of the semester we’ve put work into this,” senior Matt Miller, a member of Encore band, said. “We’ve put a lot of work into it.”

Miller said he is excited to sing a solo and take part in the senior song, which is something he hasn’t done before, and that showcase helps him expand his percussion skills by allowing him to play his drum set more often.

“I’ve learned a lot about the people, though,” Miller said. “There are a lot of really cool people in this group, and it’s really cool to see all these different personalities come together for a show like this to be showcased at school.”

For Kendall, putting on the showcase helps the students learn lessons that go outside the auditorium like teamwork, time management and pushing oneself.

“I think that they probably benefit from [managing their time] as well as learning how to work with each other and follow through with responsibility because with everything they do, there are other people relying them to do their job,” Kendall said. “There’s a lot of responsibility not just to themselves but to their family of ensemble as well.”

Rehearsals for the show started on April 25, which involve everyone who will be performing or working at the showcase on Friday and Saturday.

“It was slow but really cool to set up and get all the instruments out,” Miller said. “It’s starting to feel more like a show which was fun for me.”

Kendall says that the students haven’t wasted any time by practicing both in class and in the halls to make their work pay off.

“There’ll certainly be more than one thing that was worth coming for,” Kendall said. “So much of this music is pop and current, and there’s something for everyone.”