The Pops Choir performed at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson on Saturday, Sept. 12.

Performing a medley of songs from the musical and movie “Hairspray” in bright red dresses and suits on a canopied concrete stage, it was an upbeat time for all of the Pops Choir members.
Being an exclusive choir only accepting juniors and seniors, 50% of the members are new. Going from 14 members last year to 16, Pops Choir has always been a close-knit community with collaboration on the forefront.
“From the end of July all the way throughout the school year, we become one really close-knit family, because it is a really small, selective choir,” senior Leah Herring said.
Song, dance and travel are the biggest points of Pops Choir, one of the more active choral groups. Known for their performances throughout the Manhattan community, especially for their visits to the local elementaries, the Pops Choir has cemented their footprint through the decades they’ve existed for.
“The Pops Choir has existed since the mid ‘60s,” choir director Chad Pape, a former Pops member himself, said. “I’ve been directing them for 20 years.”
From acapella to pop music, to classical and the arts, the Pops Choir is a very versatile group and with dance accompanying their songs, a lot of preparation and collaboration goes into their performances. For the state fair performance of “Hairspray,” prep started before the school year even began.
“In the last week of the previous school year, we’ll sit down and pick everything out before they leave for summer break,” Pape said.
The work resumed weeks before the school year’s beginning, at Pops Camp.
“We had a whole week to learn about a 20-minute-long dance routine,” Herring said, “And then we would only learn dancing during that one week, at the end of July, and then we’d come to school, and when school started, we learned all of our music, and we learned all of our parts.”
Throughout the year with such a small, curated group of people with synchronized dances and the ultimate expectation of Pops being the first step towards musical independence, friendship and collaboration is crucial to be the best you can.
“The connection Pops has is just amazing. I’m just amazed by it every day,” junior Kinsley Payne, “and we all really, really enjoy each other, and so that made the show even a bit better.”
“And so we all fought for the chance to be here,” Herring said, “and we all take that very seriously. And I think that we just enjoy each other’s company, because we’re in the presence of people who take it just as seriously as we do.”
Students can attend various shows throughout the year and support the choir in a December Rotary Club luncheon, or a Christmas themed Optimist Club breakfast, but the Fall Showcase is an upcoming performance open for everybody, occurring on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.
“We do a Fall Showcase and we do a Spring Showcase, and the Pops Choir shares those concerts with the Blue Notes Jazz band,” Pape said, “and those are all fully public community performances we do in Rezac Auditorium.”
The pandemic put a hold on the Pops Choirs performances; their soul and essence. But in these five years, the choir has rebuilt themselves by the hands and help of all the students throughout those years.
“We’re super proud of our choir students,”  Pape said, “…we’re really especially proud of our choir students in the last four or five years, they’ve basically rebuilt a program from zero in their time here.“