A show choir may sound like a staid, button-down type of performance. Still, Daniel Hand High School’s (DHHS) choir travels the country competing against groups that are much better funded and supported. DHHS Music Director Ron Soja is one of the reasons why Hand’s choir gives the competition a run for its money at every contest. The show choir circuit can make Friday night football seem small in comparison, as competitions involve professional music arrangers, musicians, and the expense and production of a Broadway show, as well as a rabid fan base.

To say that Ron started his musical career at a young age is a bit of an understatement. Ron says he first began public performance and musical direction when he was barely in his teens, taking the reins as organist at his local church.

“When I was 13, I got a job as the organist-slash-pianist at my church in Durham where I grew up,” says Ron. “I kind of filled in every Saturday night, and that turned into taking over full-time as director of music, and that was when I was a senior in high school.”

According to Ron, he was on his way to the University of Rhode Island for his studies when his mother urged him to try something local.

“My mother, thankfully, said that I should try commuting for a year and getting some experience to see if it was something I wanted to continue doping. So, I stayed local and ended up going to Central Connecticut (State University), and I was still able to come home on weekends and run the church choir,” says Ron. “I found that I got a lot of great experience working with 40 teenagers and adults in the choir so that when I went to take my music classes it seemed like I had a leg up on others because I had that experience. And to this day, I am still doing that; it’s been 33 years for me running the choir at my church.”

Ron says he started at Hand shortly after graduating and has been there since 2000, making this his 24th year in Madison. Ron is officially the music teacher at Hand, but he teaches AP music theory, piano class, and all of the various chorus and choir ensembles as well.

“I actually have five choirs: the junior/senior choir, the sophomore/freshman choir, a group called Waes Haeil choir, which is like a chamber choir, I have the Encore choir, which is a contemporary a cappella choir, and then the show choir, which is called VIBE,” says Ron. “I really love running these groups because it gives me a chance to be a coach. While I am a music teacher, when we get into competitions, there really is a lot of motivation that needs to go on…and I like to help kids push through to do more than what they thought they could do.”

And the VIBE choir is front and center now, as the show choir season will start with the new year.

These events are massive multi-school and multi-day events that bring the best of the best from all over to compete for top honors, says Ron. DHHS VIBE is a competitive and nationally ranked song and dance choir that travels the Northeast and beyond to compete against some of the best show choirs in the nation, and VIBE has over 75 members between cast, crew, and band, according to Ron.

“This is kind of the big group that I do, simply because we compete, so we travel all over New England and across the country. This year, we’re competing in New York, but next year, we’re going to the Grand Ole Opry to compete,” says Ron. “A show choir really has a theatre aspect to it. I kind of like to describe it as a 30-minute Broadway production. We have a full student band, the behind-the-scenes students, who are critical to the production, [and] then the singers and dancers as well. It really is a big-time production. We start working on our show a year before. It’s a lot of planning.”

According to Ron, the department holds an annual fundraiser - the VIBE Cabaret - each January to kick off the season and debut their new show for our friends, family, and the community. This year's show is entitled "Velveteen," based on the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, and the Cabaret has scheduled three performances for Sunday, Jan. 7.

“This show is very different from shows we’ve done in the past. We’ve never really done something like this. Last year, we did a western…this one incorporates some different styles of music and styles of dance. The kids seem to love it, and we are very excited to present it,” says Ron.

Ron says VIBE competes well in New England, where show choirs are a relatively new form of musical expression. The big competition is from the Midwest and California, where choirs utilize professional musicians and directors in the band and hire professional arrangers who can charge more than $1,200 per minute of music.

“We really have to raise a lot of money every year to mount these productions. For example, our arranger, if he does an original arrangement, she charges $1,275 per minute,” says Ron. “We obviously can’t afford that, but even using his already published arrangements, they can cost $600 to $1,000 per song, and then you have to get that music licensed so that you can go out and legally perform it, and that usually costs another $300 to $400 per song. We usually do six songs a year, so those costs add up. And that’s just the music. We have choreographers who come out and teach the dance to our kids, and that is $15,000. We have a costume budget of $18,000 a year, so it is obviously expensive. And that doesn’t even include travel expenses and performance fees. And our band, unlike many other of our competitors, is all student-led and staffed. So, we really try to fundraise as much as much of the costs as possible so that we don’t have students who can’t participate due to lack of funding.”

Ron says even though they are often at a disadvantage when competing outside New England due to the extravagance of the other competitors (one group actually used Miley Cyrus’ band as their musical accompaniment last year), Ron is proud of his students and the caliber of talent that they display every season.

“Some of our competition have been on Dancing With the Stars, they’ve been on Oprah, one school is actually one that the TV show Glee based on their show choir, so the competition is tough,” says Ron. “But that’s why I’m so proud of our students.”

This year’s Cabaret, “Velveteen,” will present three show times at DHHS on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at noon, 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. The public is invited. Anyone wishing to donate or find out more info about VIBE should visit www.dhhsvibe.com.