ONALASKA, Wis. -- The 21st Onalaska Show Choir Classic will showcase some of the best show choirs in the Midwest.

Five of last year’s six finalists return to the show choir invitational Saturday -- defending champion Swingsations of Mount Zion, Ill., Expressions of Buffalo Grove, Ill., Amazing Technical Show Choir of Omaha, Neb., Sioux City East Headliners of Sioux City, Iowa, and Executive Session of Sauk Prairie, Wis.
Tom Munderloh, Onalaska High School’s show choir director, said this year more show choirs will be competing for the six final spots including Totino-Grace High School’s Company of Singers of Minneapolis, Eisenhower Elite Energy of Decatur, Ill., Wheaton-Warrenville, Ill., Classics and Riverside Company of Hastings, Minn., which finished third at Viterbo’s show choir competition Jan. 5.

“It’s a bigger and better competition, and I think the finals are wide open,” Munderloh said. “We have a great lineup and that will make for an exciting competition.”

He said 18 show choirs will compete in open class starting at 8:40 a.m. Saturday with the only La Crosse-area show choir, Tomah High School’s Limited Edition, taking the stage. More than 1,000 performers and a crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 is expected.

The Onalaska Classic kicks off Friday with a concert choir competition at First Lutheran Church in Onalaska, and a middle school contest at Onalaska High School.

La Crosse Central's Robed Choir has won the concert choir competition every year since the contest started six years ago. Munderloah said some good choirs such as Totino-Grace, Sioux City East, Altoona and Chatfield, Minn., choirs could challenge Central. Other La Crosse-area concert choirs participating this year include G-E-T Robed Choir and Central's Upper Women's Chorus and Men’s Chorus. Onalaska's Select Women's Chorus and Concert Choir will perform in exhibition.

“I’ve said it before but I like the concert choir competition because concert choir is at the heart of a good choral program," Munderloh said.

Onalaska's seventh and eighth-grade show choirs and La Crosse's Logan and Longfellow middle school show choirs will participate in the middle school contest. The Onalaska Hilltoppers and OHS Express will perform in exhibition Friday and Saturday.

Advertisement