PENDLETON — For the seniors who are part of the Emerald Suites, their championship winning performance at the recent Indiana State School Music Association show choir state finals represented a full-circle moment.
The all-girl show choir group at Pendleton Heights High School finished an undefeated season as state champions. It was their first title since 2022.
Senior Raya Conway, the second soprano section leader of the Emerald Suites, was a freshman when the Emerald Suites first became state champions. She said the experience of delivering a championship-caliber performance was the perfect way to finish out her show choir career in high school.
“It was a really cool experience and really full circle for the five of us that were in Suites our freshman year,” Conway said. “It honestly got emotional, too, because it is bittersweet as well. I was really proud of this year, and it was really great to see all the hard work that everyone has put into it for that to be the outcome.”
Sal Schellenberger, a senior and one of the presidents of Emerald Suites, said the senior group wanted to emulate what the Emerald Suites did in her freshman year.
“I feel like we had really good leadership my freshman year and we all really wanted to be like that,” Schellenberger said. “So when it was finally our time to step up and be leaders, we brought back, or tried to bring back, what it felt like our freshman year.”
Rehearsal for show choir begins in October, with competition season happening during February and March.
The theme for the Emerald Suites performance this year was “Pretty to Punk,” which included different genres like musical theatre and 80s pop. Schellenberger said at the start of their performances, everyone acts very proper and the costumes are themed like princesses, but then it changes.
“We have this turning point in the ballad where we kind of get hurt,” Schellenberger said. “At the end, we all just come together and are more free in a way. It is more punk and different. Maybe not seeing the nicer side of things, but still enjoying it — we are all still happy, even though it is not the most picture perfect.”
Erin Archer is the show choir director of the Emerald Suites, the Pendletones, New Edition and Added Attraction. She has been the show choir director at PHHS for nine years.
Archer went to Lawrence Central High School and participated in a mixed show choir, as well as their girls group. She said her high school choir director was a role model for her.
“I had a really great director when I was in high school,” Archer said. “She was an amazing inspiration for me. She led with vigor and drive in the classroom and really demanded the respect and excellence from everybody in the room. It was something I aspired to be like.”
Archer mentioned that this season was different from others, because all 48 girls in the Emerald Suites “had the same drive and push and mentality to be the best they could be, regardless of what that meant at the end of the night.”
Conway said all the girls see each other as equals, while Schellenberger added that she has made some of her best friends in show choir.
“There was a tremendous amount of pride and love for all of them,” Archer said. “Just watching them be overjoyed and ecstatic for what they had done for the year and knowing they put their whole heart and soul into what they were doing. There’s just an overwhelming amount of pride and love for those girls and what they were able to accomplish this year.”
