East High School’s annual end-of-year choir performance, Expressions, took place Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, 2025. The concert featured over 50 students and 23 songs in all, between its medleys, band performances, and otherwise full-group pieces.
Expressions is the yearly “final hurrah,” as junior Chloe Berry described it, that East’s Singers, the school’s varsity concert choir, creates. It puts an emphasis on production value and choreography, similar to show choir performances, with a live student band, costume changes, and full use of the auditorium lighting to create a fantastic product.
“The way we explain it, it’s like rock show meets show choir,” Daphne Otu, a performer in the show explained. “Expressions is a 100% student-led show. It’s completely student-choreographed, student-arranged, and we pick all of the songs that we do.”
The students in Expressions perform in two singer/dancer sets and the band set, and this year they took advantage of this fact to add to the show using the theme of “Battle of the Bands.” The audience was asked near the end of the performance to vote for their favorite set. Both nights, the band won.
The theme also allowed for a wide variety of music. The show consisted of songs primarily from well-known bands, like the Backstreet Boys, the Black-Eyed Peas, and Paramore.
“When we start working on Expressions, we all throw in a bunch of theme ideas, and then we vote on them,” Phoebe Strong said. “Battle of the Bands was our top theme, and we thought it would be a fun, open-ended theme that didn’t need to have much of a story. It’s just songs that people know and can watch and enjoy, with an overlying theme of music made by bands.”
This edition of Expressions marks the 54th production of the show. On Friday’s performance, the audience was informed that John Peterson, East’s first choir director and the original creator of Expressions, was part of the crowd to enjoy the show for one of his final times.
“It was really special to have him come watch our show and enjoy it,” Jack Welstead, performer and one of the set leaders in Expressions, said. “He talked to us before the show, and it was really cool to see this kind of full circle moment where we got to show him appreciation for being able to participate in what he created.”
Expressions has come very far from what its original event looked like, and the love for it by audiences has only risen with time. The tradition stands strong, and is sure to continue to be one of East High’s most special performances for years to come.
