By Dan McGrath
If there’s a higher level of recognition than “world-renowned,” the Leo Choir might have reached it.
Three high-profile performances within a dizzying 10-day period capped a remarkable school year for the singers and served as an appropriate sendoff for their amazing director, Mrs. LaDonna Hill, who is retiring after 25 years at Leo.
The annual Spring Concert at Leo on May 29 turned into a gala celebration of Mrs. Hill’s tenure as singers past and present joined school officials and a capacity crowd of parents and well-wishers in saluting her.
Family responsibilities and her commitment to the church she serves as Pastor necessitated a reduction in Mrs. Hill’s workload. She has agreed to stay on through the summer to fulfill some Leo Choir obligations.
Those include a return engagement on “America’s Got Talent,” a widely popular NBC program that broadcast the Choir’s audition to a national audience that included a “Watch Party” in the Leo Auditorium on June 10.
Some background: After a video of the Choir’s performance for a Cancer Awareness benefit went viral earlier this year, they were invited to travel to Los Angeles over spring break to audition for AGT. They were sworn to secrecy regarding the result, but their stylized performance of “Born for This” drew such an incredibly positive response from the four judges and the studio audience that it was clear the Choir would advance.
Even the famously acerbic judge Simon Cowell was effusive, congratulating Mrs. Hill with a hug and declaring the performance “worthy of a Broadway show.”
So the Choir will be back in Los Angeles in early August for Round 2 of the competition. Stay tuned for further details.
Still on a high from their national television exposure, the Choir was back on a local stage four days later. But what a stage it was – they were enlisted to perform at the Archdiocese’s “Celebration of Pope Leo XIV” at Rate Field, home of the White Sox, on Saturday, June 14. “There are literally thousands of choirs in the Chicago area that the Arch could have chosen, but they invited us,” Dr. Shaka Rawls, Leo’s principal, noted with pride. “That speaks to the value the Choir has as ambassadors for Leo.”
In choosing to be called Leo, the Pope cited the influence of Pope Leo XIII, the “workingman’s Pope,” after whom Leo High School is named. Not only is Pope Leo XIV the first American-born Pope, he hails from the Chicago area, having grown up as Robert Prevost in south suburban Dolton.
The event included 90 minutes of music and speeches, including a videotaped message from the Pope himself, followed by a Mass at which Cardinal Blase Cupich presided. The entire afternoon was designed to celebrate the Pope’s Chicago roots and drew a crowd estimated at 30,000.
The Choir’s three-song set featured the National Anthem and “Lift Every Voice.” They were on the field for the music and speeches, and before they moved to seats in the Rate Field stands they were summoned to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s box for a meet-and-greet. As they passed through the crowd to take their seats for Mass, a steady stream of well-wishers acknowledged their “America’s Got Talent” appearance and thanked them for their sterling contribution to the Papal celebration.
Five days later the Choir performed before an even larger audience – a crowd of 40,000 in the stands at Wrigley Field for the Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers game. The date was June 19th – “Juneteenth” – and the Cubs sought to acknowledge it.
“We were looking for a choir to be part of our ‘Juneteenth’ celebration, and the Leo Choir came highly recommended,” a Cubs spokesperson said.
And they didn’t disappoint, leading off with “Lift Every Voice,” following with the National Anthem and drawing a standing ovation after each song.
The Wrigley crowd was just as responsive as the Rate Field patrons had been, shaking hands, snapping pictures and calling out encouraging greetings to the boys as they took their seats in the stands. When they arrived at Section 217, everyone seated in the section stood and greeted them with a standing ovation.
“We do this 81 times a year,” a Wrigley Field sound engineer told Leo President Dan McGrath, “and we haven’t had a group sound that great in years.”
The good news didn’t end there.
During the “America’s Got Talent” broadcast, Simon Cowell asked the singers what they would do with ”all that money” should they advance through the competition and claim the $1 million first prize.
Recent graduate Ian Dunn, a four-year Choir member headed for Clark Atlanta University to study business and play baseball, took the microphone.
“College,” he said. “I’ll use it to pay for college.”
A generous Big Shoulders benefactor saw the exchange and was struck by the maturity of Dunn’s reply. So she is setting up a $5,000 college fund for each Choir member through Big Shoulders so they’ll have a head start on covering their college expenses. With 22 singers involved, the total outlay will exceed $100,000.
“You guys deserve this,” Big Shoulders President and CEO Josh Hale said in announcing the awards. “We couldn’t be more proud of how well you have represented yourselves, your families and your school.”