A Look Behind the Curtain for the Fall 2025 Choir Concert
By Claire Littman and Shohei Kobayashi
On Wednesday, November 19, the Reed College Choirs presented their Fall 2025 concert titled “Sea / River / Mother / Dream.” The concert took place at 7:30pm in Kaul Auditorium with free admission, as always encouraging anyone from Reed and the broader Portland community to attend. The program featured Reed’s three vocal ensembles: Collegium Musicum, Treble Voices Ensemble, and the Reed College Chorus. Collegium Musicum (an SATB ensemble) and Treble Voices (an SSAA ensemble) are audition-based groups, while Chorus (another SATB ensemble) is open to all students and local community members.
All three groups are directed by Reed’s Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies, Shohei Kobayashi (they/he). Shohei served as the conductor for the concert and the ensembles were supported by collaborative pianist Rebecca Stager (she/her). Each choir performed three to four pieces alone and then came together to perform the piece “They Are Mother” by Jennifer Lucy Cook as the finale. Between choral sets, Stager interluded with selections from The Gaza Suite, a 2025 work for solo piano by Dr. Donia Jarrar, an Egyptian-Palestinian-American musician and composer.
Before the concert, I sat down with Director Shohei to gain some insight into the themes, planning, and unique aspects of the Fall Concert, as well as the choral program in general this semester. Shohei dove into the process of conceptualizing and programming a concert, mentioning that there isn’t just a single rigid theme but that “broadly speaking, there are themes of love, of transformation, [and] of solidarity.” Following this conversation on theme, Shohei pointed out and elaborated on the intention and significance behind certain pieces for each ensemble.
For Chorus, Shohei highlighted “To Sit and Dream” composed by Rosephanye Powell on text by Langston Hughes. They explained that this piece “speaks to sitting and reading the news and yet still also dreaming of what else is possible,” which “in this moment felt like something that we could all relate to.” For Treble Voices, Shohei described “When the Dust Settles” (music by Mari Esabel Valverde and text by Amir Rabiyah) as “a ‘we really need this’ piece.” Our conversation contextualized the piece, underscoring the importance of solidarity with our trans siblings, especially amidst increasing escalation of anti-trans legislation, and the passing of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (the influential author, transgender rights activist, and community organizer whom the piece was dedicated to) within the months spent rehearsing and leading up to the concert. Other pieces that Shohei emphasized were Collegium’s “Regreso al mar” (music by Venezuelan composer Modesta Bor and text by Andrés Eloy Blanco) and the collaborative finale “They Are Mother,” which would prove to be a moving and inspiring conclusion to the concert.
After discussing the concert itself, we moved on to a reflection on the uniqueness of Reed’s choral program, specifically in this fall semester. As a professor and choral director for several years, Shohei has now witnessed cycles of Reed’s music students and the evolution of the choral program. They noted that with Chorus, an especially high number of both new students and outside community members have joined the ensemble this semester. In fact, twenty out of the fifty Chorus members are non-students. This includes staff, faculty, alumni, neighbors, and friends. Although there have always been non-student members, the number has continued to increase, and Shohei emphasized how much they “love the intergenerational aspect of it and that students are learning alongside lifelong learners.”
With Collegium and Treble Voices, Shohei noted that although both groups are much smaller this year, the sense of community and commitment has actually increased. This is the first semester that Treble Voices has been an auditioned group, which has come with both challenges and successes. Shohei celebrated the emergence of “the continuing participants of the ensembles year to year learning and understanding what's expected of them and what's required in order to make this thing happen together.” They recognize that students are increasingly “interested in committing their time and energy” and seeing choir as a “cocurricular activity, [and] holding it with the same kind of academic value as their primary studies, [...] so even though the ensembles are smaller, the commitment is very strong and what the ensembles are able to do as a result of that is still really inspiring.”
For those interested in joining any of the Reed choral ensembles, auditions will be held during the first week of spring classes, January 27–29, 2026. To indicate interest in joining and to find out more information, one can use this link: bit.ly/ReedChoirs26 to fill out the intake form. All three ensembles can be taken as courses for 0 or 0.5 credit and each require varying degrees of musical proficiency, with options available for all experience levels.