LOWELL — In April, Lowell High School’s show choir ensemble, Sound Impressions, brought home the vocal performance version of an Olympic gold.
After years of last-place finishes, the group won first place in the Large Mixed Division, the highest show choir competition, during the Eastern Show Choir Festival held at Waltham High School.
“Last year, they got a bronze medal,” Director of Choral Activities Evan Caverly said by phone on Thursday. “We went from the bottom medal to the top medal in one year.”
The almost 2-foot high grand champion trophy sits at the center of an already-impressive table display in the choir’s second-floor practice space. Sound Impressions won four gold medals — Best Vocals, Best Soloist, the Bill McIvor Award and Judge’s Award — in six competitions during the event to earn the overall ranking. It was the first such award in the choir’s 40-year history.
The ensemble, along with its unisex treble group, Soundsations, have been collecting high-level group and individual awards in their divisions at show choir competitions around New England.
On Friday morning, members of both show choirs were singing warm-up scales against a backdrop of unpainted drywall, too-low hanging fluorescent light fixtures and bad acoustics.
The practice room is located in a wing of the multiyear rebuilding/renovation project at the downtown school. The under-construction décor echoes the rebuilding the group itself has undergone in the past year, through the guidance of Caverly, who started in their new role in September.
Caverly, who uses they/them pronouns, called the gold medal win “unprecedented.” Assistant Director Allyson Imbacuan added that the last time the ensemble won a gold medal in any category was when she was a senior with the group in 2019.
The 38-member show choir competed against the show choirs of Manteno High School, of Illinois, and Sturbridge’s Tantasqua Regional High School. The 18-member Soundsations took second place against Dudley’s Shepherd High Regional High School in the treble division.
Both Caverly and Imbacuan are former show choir members and Lowell High graduates who have returned to the school to rebuild a program that has gone through some difficult times.
Following longtime director Andy Descoteaux’s retirement in 2015, there were numerous turnovers of show choir directors. In 2021, a flood destroyed most of the choir’s instruments, awards, practice room and more. Then, in the spring of 2024, the last show choir director suddenly left, right before a major competition.
“They didn’t have the consistency and the champions that they needed to be great,” Caverly said, describing the student ensembles. “It’s a new era for Lowell. We have a brand-new team, a premier league.”
Caverly came back to Lowell after being the director of choral activities at Twin Lakes School in Monticello, Indiana. They earned their bachelor’s degree in music education from Elmhurst University in Illinois.
Imbacuan earned a biology degree from Boston University and is working on her master’s degree in social work at Merrimack College. She’s a trained dancer, who was dance captain for the show choir and high school dance ensemble.
Caverly has brought a mix of hometown Lowell and bright lights/big city into their new role, not only hiring Imbacuan, but also adding outside arrangement and choreography talent to the group’s repertoire.
Show choir is about more than just singing. Choreography, musical arrangements and costumes are also major performance components, said Caverly.
Choreographer Stephen Todd and arranger Brian McAllister helped the show choir prepare for this year’s competition program called “The Prom.” Both artists are friends and colleagues of Caverly from their time in Show Choir Summer Camps of America.
“Brian is a genius, and Stephen is one of the best and most famous choreographers in the nation,” Caverly said. “This was his first time having a group in the Northeast. It’s really important to me to hire people who can be champions for the kids. Every kid deserves a champion.”
That investment and belief in the students’ talent paid off as Lowell High’s choir beat the competition by 40 points.
“It was not close,” Caverly said. “We decimated everyone.”
Winning the top performance award felt good to senior Derek Acheampong, who joined Sound Impressions last year.
“I was really proud of our team to be up there,” he said between practice sessions on Friday. “It was kind of cinematic and magical to be the first-place grand champion.”
Acheampong is attending UMass Boston this fall, majoring in computer science, but said he may minor in theatrical performance.
Senior Kaylani Riley has been in the show choir for all four of her high school years, and has sung through both its highs and lows. She said the energy at April’s competition was “crazy.”
“No one had ever seen or heard us be so big before,” she said, referring to the choir’s vocal range and sound. “It was extremely powerful and quite the ‘note’ to go out on.”
Riley moves on to UMass Lowell in the fall. In between playing in the rock band, Diaspora, she plans on earning a marketing degree.
Caverly expects to continue the gold-level momentum into next year’s performance season.
“Look for Lowell High School Show Choir to do even bigger things,” Caverly said. “Stay tuned.”