The amiable chatter of young female voices echoed in the choral room, where in a few minutes, the same voices were united in song.

"We're going to start with Mozart's 'Lacrimosa' and we're going to sing it in Latin," said choral director Terri Lundberg.

And with that, Lundberg proceeded to pronounce the Latin words of the famous piece.

"If you take Spanish, you might see some similarities," she said. "Try to roll your r's. It's a very sad piece of music, but you can't do it in anything but Latin."

About 25 students comprise the chorus.

"There are five guys and the rest are women," Lundberg said. "In my heyday, I had 100 kids because I taught the kids from the middle school and they fed into the high school program. I had some of them for eight years. I built that relationship with the kids. I even facebook some of them."

Chorus hasn't been a co-curricular offering for a few years.

"The students want to sing and this is what [is available] so they come over flex," Lundberg explained. "Some of them give up their lunch time.

"They find a way to make the schedule work."

In recent weeks, Jaedon Muhl, Ian Remaley, Trinity Depen and Isabel Batres represented Northwestern at county chorus at Whitehall High School.

Megan Rebert was lucky enough to pass the audition for district chorus, which granted her a prestigious spot.

Freshman Emily Zane started singing when she was in the fifth grade.

"I just like singing. It's fun," Zane said. "Sometimes I don't get to my homework over flex, but singing is a lot more fun.

"[The other chorus members] are all nice and they're pretty good singers."

Ninth grade alto Journey Tretter said her best friend, Emily Zane, also sings making her like it even more.

"I used to do chorus at the elementary school, too," Tretter said.

The urge to sing is so strong two a capella groups have developed at the high school in recent years.

One is for the men; the other for the women.

"Maybe about a third of the students in these groups are also in chorus," Lundberg said. "They're singing music they like. It's a different type of singing."

Lundberg said the two groups are student run and student managed.

"I've heard great improvement," Lundberg said. "They will be part of the concert in May."

A capella member Morgan Moss loves singing, music and piano.

"I understand harmony more since being part of the group," said Moss, who dreams of composing and performing as a career. "It's the reason I come to school every morning. Music gets me away from the frustration and stress of daily school life."

It's déjà vu all over again for Lundberg who has re-emerged from retirement to serve as choral director for both middle and high school.

"Bob Billig retired in 2011 and I retired six months later," she said.

"He wasn't replaced and I wasn't replaced, leaving four full-time people to cover everything.

Choral lessons were no longer offered in the middle and high school."

"I had heard there were some changes going to occur in the district and when Jason [Zimmerman] asked me if I would be interested in being the choral director at the high school and the middle school, I started to think," Lundberg said. "I missed the kids, missed being around them and their energy. It was a way to come back and be around them again."

"I think of myself more as a coach because I get a stipend like all the other coaches. There are no grades and there are no choral lessons.

"I meet the kids twice a week and when they're able they come but you never know who you're going to get."

Lundberg said music is something that can continue throughout one's entire life.

Lundberg is also choir director for Ziegels Union Church.

"We listen to it all the time, but making music is very different," she said. "Music takes all that they learn in science and math and in other classes and it pulls it all together.

"All the studies show kids who participate in music improve their academics."

"There's so much out there that proves it. Now we have to get [skeptics] to believe it."