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Choir's Vice President, Jace Miserak, shakes his classmate's hand before heading into Walmart to perform.

The new Walmart in Prosper has left plenty of families thankful for the close drive. The grand opening of the Prosper Walmart included an invitation to the community to come enjoy food samples and have their children participate in activities, such as the Oreo stacking contest.

On their opening day Walmart encountered a bit of a surprise. The Varsity Treble and Mixed choirs were visiting the middle schools to mentor and encourage the young singers to continue their participation in choir when they get to high school. In between the mentoring trip from Reynolds to Rogers, the buses made a stop at the grand opening of Walmart. The students piled into the front of the produce section and began to sing.

You can imagine how this event caught the attention of customers and employees alike. After all, you don’t usually hear a live performance as you shop for the most ripe avocado in the store.

“It was awkward to perform in front of grocery shoppers,” Neo, a bass, said. “It is such an uncommon thing to do. The customers were surprised.”

Varsity Treble, an all women’s choir, began their songs first, including the pieces Home on the Range and Children Go Where I Send Thee.

As their sound resonated against the walls and various fruit crates, customers seemed to come to a halt and watch the Treble choir with intensity. Even the employees stopped their tasks and formed a circle around the choral singers.

“It was amazing to see the customers stop what they were doing to listen to the choir,” Crystal Chamberlain, the Varsity Treble conductor, said. “Some of them even began recording the performances because they were so impressed by the singers.”

When Treble had finished, Varsity Mixed stepped up to the plate and watched their conductor, Mr. Tombrella, to enter in their first song. The choir sang The Circle of Life then an African piece called Bonse Aba.

This song required a Djembe, a type of drum, but the head choir director, Mr. Tombrella, had left it on the bus, so he decided to beat against the onion crate behind him. This caused an onion to run off its case and roll on the floor.

“I started laughing a lot,” soprano Erin Konvalin said, “Of course Mr.T dropped an onion.”

The Mixed choir sang one more solo piece called Hlonolofatsa. During this third song, which was also an African piece, an Oreo costume came running into the group and began to dance.

“I was so confused when that Oreo popped out it took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I laughed so hard once I figured it out. It was so weird! Everyone just started to dance,“ Konvalin said.

After the laughter subsided, both Varsity choirs finished out the performance with a double-up on the song Shenandoah.

Following the unusual event, the group traveled over to Rogers Middle School, where they re-sang all six pieces in front of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

“It was a recruiting trip that had a dual purpose: recruit the middle school choir for high school choir, and try to establish community relations,” Tombrella said.

Emily MacDonagh, and 8th grader at Rogers, enjoyed the visit. “It was absolutely amazing to see the choirs I want to join in the future,” MacDonagh said.

“I love choir because we’re such a huge family, and it’s wonderful to be surrounded by friends,” MacDonagh said. She is one of many middle school kids who plan on staying in choir and striving to reach the Varsity level.

“Our goal as a choir is always to bring joy to others through music,”Chamberlain said. “It was wonderful to see people stop in the middle of their busy day and listen.  I think it speaks to the talent and hard work of our PHS singers that they put a smile on so many faces that day. We are so proud of them.”