Voices echoed into the far reaches of Stephens Auditorium as 300 singers from Iowa State collaborated their talents to put on a spectacular concert. Iowa State’s four large choral groups performed for the 23rd Annual Collage of Choirs Sunday afternoon.

Choral groups the Iowa State Singers, the Cantamus Women’s Choir, the Iowa Statesmen Men’s Choir and the Lyrica Women’s Choir presented about 12 songs, ending with a combined-choir rendition of “The Bells of Iowa State.” The concert was conducted by husband-and-wife combination Jim Rodde, professor of music, and Kathleen Rodde, adjunct assistant professor of music, and drew crowds from as far as Oklahoma City.

Shelby Sievers, president of the Iowa State Singers was pleased with the year’s first performance.

“I think it was a good start to our year and I’m looking forward to going up from our performance and improving,” says Sievers, junior in music.

“One of the best things about the group is that we are family and that allows us to work together and to make beautiful music.”

The thing that sets the four choir groups apart is the amount of time constraint says Matt McCue, vice president of the Iowa State Singers.

“The Iowa State Singers meets every day at noon to practice while the other choirs meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” says McCue, junior in music. “But each choir has a strong interest in music, and I think that’s what it’s really all about.”

However, not all students have a declared interest in music.

“To be in a choir, you don’t have to be a music major, you just have to have an interest in singing,” McCue says. “There are so many different walks of people here.”

With an upcoming concert in October, the Iowa State Singers will be performing some new pieces while using some of the same work they performed Sunday.

McCue says the challenge of preparing for a performance is the amount of time the group has for preparation and attaining a unified sound within the chorus, problem as this year’s show was a week earlier than last year’s.

“In order to get a good sound, you need to have unified vowel shapes . something that can take up to a whole year to master,” he says.