NC Choirs at 70

The 1950s: Two choirs and the launch of the Counterpoints

When North Central opened in the fall of 1956, North Central’s first choral director Hollace Arment guided two choirs: the mixed A Cappella Choir and the all-girl Belles. The first two years were lean, with 57 singers in the program the first year and 50 the second. These original choirs caroled the halls at Christmas, gave an Easter program for the school, and staged the operetta The Prince of Pilsen.

Everything changed in the fall of 1958 when Don Martin arrived as the school’s new choir director. Martin started his teaching career a decade earlier in Fairmount, Indiana, where one of his students was a young drummer named James Dean. In his first semester at North Central, Martin founded the Counterpoints, a select group of 19 singers that a later edition of the Northerner would call “the first show choir in Indiana.” He also started the Girls’ Ensemble that same year, a group that would eventually become the modern Accents. Choir enrollment jumped to 125, and by the end of the decade the Counterpoints were already singing for school assemblies, the Christmas program, and community clubs.

The 1960s: Descants debut and a program takes shape

Under Martin the department grew fast. New groups arrived almost every year including a one-year Choral Club (1959–60); the Concert Choir, Girls’ Chorale, and Glee Clubs (1961–62); and the all-male Music Men and the girls’ Madrigals (1963–64). The group that would become the program’s top univoice choir, the Descants, debuted in 1966. In 1967–68, the Northernaires name made its first appearance as a training choir, over 20 years before it would re-emerge in its current gospel choir form. The Belles faded out early in the decade as the Girls’ Ensemble, chosen from their ranks, took over as the top girls’ group.

The choirs’ results matched the program’s growth. By 1966, all seven of North Central’s choral groups had taken first place at the state music contest, and the Counterpoints had won first at state eight years in a row. By mid-decade the Counterpoints were giving more than 50 private performances for church groups, hotels, country clubs, and civic organizations, and they sang on radio and television, at the governor’s mansion, and for Indiana University’s music department. A Brief Counterpoint History, provided by former director Pat Wiehe, recounted, “The freedom the Counterpoints had to leave school for community performances in those early years is something the members of the choir remember with fondness – and it is something that faculty at that time no doubt thought of ruefully. There is no question that the fact the choir was bringing a lot of favorable publicity to North Central played a significant role in the administrative latitude given.” In the summer of 1964 they were invited to perform at the National Education Association convention in Seattle. Their annual Christmas record and the Family Jamboree musicals, from Annie Get Your Gun to Bye Bye Birdie, made the choirs a fixture of school life.

The 1970s: A booming program for a booming school

The 1970s was a decade of huge growth at North Central, so it’s no surprise it was a busy decade for the choir program. Each choir group took on its own costumes and dance style, and the department added a wave of new options: the tap-dancing Debtones (1969–70), the Crescendos (1973–74), the Treble Tones (1975–76), the boys’ Vikings (1978–79), and the mixed N.C. Singers (1978–79). The decade also saw the first use of group names that are currently in use with the first Allegroes appearing in 1970, first Accents in 1971, and an Accents and Music Men combination performing together as the Varsity Singers in 1975.

Training choirs fed the performing choirs, and the program reached its all-time peak of 13 choirs in 1973–74 and 1974–75. By the time Martin left in October 1975, more than 300 students sang in North Central’s choirs. As the decade closed, the Girls’ Chorale and the training Northernaires had ended, and the Concert Choir was in its final year.

In the summer of 1970 the Counterpoints won the Indiana State Fair contest for the state’s champion high school choir, and the 1971 yearbook called them “the best choral group in Indiana.” They sang for audiences of thousands at Market Square Arena, Monument Circle, the Columbia Club, the Murat Temple, and the governor’s residence, and in 1972 and 1974 for political and education conventions. After Martin’s departure, Robert Critzer led the Counterpoints from 1975 to 1977 and Beatrice Thomas from 1977 to 1981. In April 1979 the choir performed at the Music Educators National Conference, an honor reserved for choirs of high standards.

The 1980s: King’s Court and a new generation

The 1980s brought two of today’s choirs. In 1979–80 the mixed King’s Court Singers appeared, likely taking the place of the N.C. Singers. Under director Phil Carey, they made the fall Madrigal Dinner a tradition, drawing more than 100 guests each night from its first year. In 1981–82 a new teacher, Pat Wiehe, took on the girls’ Rondos, still singing today, and the Music Men returned after a five-year absence. The Metropolitans (1979–80), the short-lived Mellow-Tones (1981–82), and the beginning girls’ Choralaires (1987–88) joined the lineup. By 1985–86 the yearbook counted 11 choirs, enough for every student who wanted to sing. Several 1970s groups ended in this decade, including the A Cappella Choir, the Treble Tones, the Debtones, the Crescendos, the Vikings, the Metropolitans, and the early Accents.

The Counterpoints entered a new era of competition. In 1980 they placed third at the Bishop Luers show choir contest in Fort Wayne, their first competition in a decade. Robert Critzer returned to lead them from 1981 until his death in December 1986, and Beatrice Thomas came out of retirement to finish that year. By the mid-1980s the yearbooks called the Counterpoints “one of the best high school singing and dancing acts in the state,” and the Counterpoints and King’s Court “two of Indiana’s best high school performing groups.”

The Counterpoints launched an annual Dinner Show at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, and the choirs sang at churches, nursing homes, and schools across Washington Township every December. In 1987–88 Pat Wiehe became the fourth director of the Counterpoints.

The 1990s: A national stage and the names we know today

The current NC Choirs lineup moved toward its modern shape in the 1990s. In 1990–91 Phil Carey founded a new Northernaires, a gospel choir that reused the old training choir’s name and is still singing today. Carey died in 1994 and the Northernaires sang at his funeral. The Choralaires and the early Allegroes ended early in the decade. In 1995–96 two longtime groups took new names: the Girls’ Ensemble became the Accents, and the Madrigals became the Allegros, an all-freshman girls’ choir. By the end of the decade the department had settled at eight choirs, and the December holiday show brought all of them together with the orchestra for Handel’s Messiah.

On stage, the decade belonged to the Counterpoints. They were state concert choir champions four of the first five years of the decade, claiming the title in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1994. They made their first trip to the national Showstoppers competition in Chicago in 1991, placed third in the nation in 1994 and again at Nashville in 1998, and sang at American Choral Directors Association conventions. In 1999 they were grand champions at the Central Sound Classic and placed second at Chicago’s Terpsichore competition.

King’s Court sang at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 1992, and the Descants ranked third in the nation on a trip to Disneyland. By 1998 the Counterpoints were giving five or six performances a week in December, and they sang everywhere from the Indiana Roof Ballroom to halftime at a Colts game. In 1997, the program launched the summer Half Notes camp to teach show choir to Washington Township grade-schoolers.

The 2000s: Dominance at state contests

The men’s program reorganized early in the decade as the Music Men became the Ambassadors. With the men’s choir grown to about 60 voices, Pat Wiehe formed a new version of Varsity Singers in 2003–04 as an auditioned boys choir. That change brought the program lineup to nine groups: the Counterpoints, Descants, King’s Court, Northernaires, Accents, Varsity Singers, Allegros, Rondos, and Ambassadors. The Northernaires hosted their annual Praise Fest gospel festival, begun as Gospel Fest in 1998, and North Central hosted its own show choir competition.

The new millennium brought the Counterpoints’ most decorated decade. They won every ISSMA state concert choir title in the decade along with ISSMA state show choir championships in 2005 and 2006. They placed second in the nation at Showstoppers at Disney World in 2000, won the FAME show choir national championship in New York in 2006, and competed at FAME nationals in Chicago in 2008. In 2002 they sang at the American Choral Directors Association convention in Chicago, including a tribute to the victims of September 11. The Descants also made their mark on the decade winning the ISSMA state show choir championship in 2005 and concert choir titles in 2007 and 2009.

The Counterpoints completed their 50th season in 2007–08 with 53 members rehearsing 14 hours a week. In 2008–09 they performed in Washington, D.C., for the NEA Foundation.

The 2010s: A packed trophy case and a changing of the guard

The Counterpoints won eight state show choir championships in the decade, claiming titles in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. They doubled up on state titles in 2011, also winning the concert choir title. The Descants had similar state title success with their own four-year run in the show choir contest. The girls group brought home a total of six state show choir championships, claiming victory in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 along with concert choir titles in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016.

The Counterpoints sang at an American Choral Directors Association convention. In 2011–12 they toured England. In 2013–14 every North Central choir earned a gold rating at the ISSMA organizational contest. The December calendar filled with a Messiah concert, a holiday concert for all choirs, and the Counterpoints’ own More Joyful Sounds of the Season at Broadway United Methodist Church.

In 2013 Pat Wiehe retired after 32 years at North Central and 26 as director of the Counterpoints, and Michael Berg Raunick took over the Counterpoints and the department. In 2016 the two sections of the Allegros split into two choirs, the Allegros and a new girls’ choir, the Encores, bringing the lineup to the current count of ten.

The Counterpoints returned to the top of the podium at a national championship event as they claimed Grand Champion honors at the 2018 Show Choir Nationals in Nashville, TN.

The 2020s: Ten choirs at seventy

The COVID pandemic in 2020 reshaped the program. Beginning in 2019–20, the Allegros and Encores started rehearsing and performing together and still perform as one group today. With the 2021 competition season cancelled, the Counterpoints created a video set that’s still available for viewing on YouTube. In 2023 the department reorganized its inclusive choir program. The Rondos, which had been serving as an inclusive treble choir, became a mixed concert choir. The Ambassadors, which served as an inclusive tenor and bass choir, became a single mixed inclusive choir.

Longtime Kings Court and Accents director Joyce Click retired in 2022 and Elizabeth Morrison joined the program as her replacement. Under Morrison’s guidance, Kings Court moved away from its madrigal and concert choir roots to focus on vocal jazz. The group won the ISSMA vocal jazz contest in 2024, their first year participating in the event. The final Madrigal Dinner was held in 2025 and the group, now known as KC Jazz, held its first year-end Cabaret event in 2026.

Michael Berg Raunick departed in 2024 and Descants and Varsity Singers director Jared McElroy moved into the role of director of choirs and became the sixth director of the Counterpoints. The Descants rewarded McElroy with the group’s seventh state concert choir title in 2024, his final year as that group’s director. Daria Weingartner joined the team to lead Descants and Northernaires in 2024. The North Central Choirs Parent Organization funded a contract for Tenéh B. C. Karimu to join as Show Band director and associate director of Northernaires in 2025. She returned for the 2026-2027 school year.

North Central’s choirs have continued to find success on competitive stages thus far in the decade. The Counterpoints have claimed nine show choir contest grand championships and took first runner-up honors at the 2026 Show Choir Nationals in Nashville, TN. The Descants have claimed top honors at two contests to go along with their 2024 state concert choir title. The Accents have also added to the trophy case, claiming top prep/Tier 2 honors at the four most recent contests at Lawrence Central. The program also operated North Side Sound, a separate middle school choir for performers in and out of the Washington Township district from 2024-26. That group, in North Central Choirs fashion, picked up top honors in the middle school division at the Lawrence Central Classic in 2025.

The 2020s also saw improved facilities for the choirs as part of a large renovation to North Central that lasted most of the decade. The school’s renovated auditorium reopened as Birge Auditorium in 2022. The choirs and rest of the performing arts department moved into a new performing arts wing to start the 2026 school year with a dedicated entrance near the main JEL entrance.

A legacy built for another 70 years

As North Central marks its 70th anniversary, ten choirs carry the school’s choir tradition forward: the Counterpoints, Descants, KC Jazz, Northernaires, Accents, Varsity Singers, Allegros, Encores, Rondos, and Ambassadors.

Building on a legacy that grew from those first two choirs in 1956, the members of the current choirs are part of a rich history of excellence that’s produced award-winning performers along with business professionals, educators, and thousands of proud alumni and alumnae.

The legacy grows every time a Counterpoint joins in to sing “Jenny Rebecca,” every time a Descant gobbles during “It’s Turkey Lurkey Time” at More Joyful Sounds of the Season, and every time an NC Choirs member represents themselves and the school at an ISSMA competition. Every note sung adds another piece to the proud 70 year tradition that is North Central Choirs.