GUELPH – Members of the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute’s Chamber Choir took their music far beyond the brick walls of their high school.
Last week, the students travelled to Toronto and performed to a crowd of thousands, alongside shock rock legend Alice Cooper.
Twenty students in the school choir joined Cooper in singing a mash-up of his hit 1972 song School’s Out and Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.
The performance took place on Sept. 29 at Budweiser Stage.
Elora resident Tuuli Quilley and Guelph resident Arshia Shaharior were among the students selected to perform with Cooper.
Quilley said when their teacher and choir lead Lane Osborne told them they’d get to play with Cooper, “everyone was screaming” with excitement.
Leading up to the show, the students rehearsed a couple times per week and Shaharior said it didn’t take long for them to nail the performance because “Everyone there is super talented.”
Shaharior teaches singing at the Guelph Academy of Music.
On the night of the show the singers took a coach bus to Toronto, and the excitement during the ride there was palpable.
The students listened to musical sound tracks while they helped each other adjust their hair, outfits and makeup.
Before hitting the stage, the students got to watch the performance from behind the scenes, giving them an inside view of what goes on backstage during a big rock show, which Quilley said felt “kind of surreal.”
The students were all given makeup kits and helped each other paint the iconic Cooper circles and lines around their eyes.
Shaharior said the lead up to the show was “a great bonding experience,” and an opportunity to connect with other students in the choir.
One student, Jane Wood, had her makeup applied by Cooper himself.
Once on stage, Shaharior said she felt a “huge adrenaline rush” and her worries all melted away – she was in the moment, performing and having a lot of fun.
They could only see the faces of people in the first few rows, Quilley said – not the thousands of people filling the outdoor venue.
Performing with professional musicians was inspiring, Shaharior said, and Quilley added the rock stars were “so into it … performing like this is the last time they were going to.”
“Seeing someone else up on stage doing what you love is a different level,” Shaharior said.
“It beats any feeling in the world.”
Osborne explained that throughout the process, “we had the chance to work with the legendary Bob Ezrin (Order of Canada) who produced both of those songs.”
Shaharior said Ezrin was “really supportive” and told the students after the show that their performance was amazing and they sounded great.
