The smell of Coffee and the sound of jazz and acoustic make for a perfect coffee shop. For the CPHS Choir department, this is just the right place for the students to showcase their talent and connect with the community. 

The event starts tonight at 6 p.m. at Rocket Coffee. In past years, the event was held at Red Horn Coffee House and Brewing co. except for last year which was held at Black Sugar Cafe. 

Among the 25 + people performing, junior Courtney McDanald said she is very excited to see the amazing talent everyone will bring.

“I like how Coffee House gives students experiences of the real world and how it enables them to perform in front of their peers by themselves as well as moving on and fixing the mistakes if they mess up with a live audience,” McDanald said.

McDanald will be singing a song called “Waves” by Chloe Moriondo while she plays the ukulele. She is also playing piano and ukulele for the performers who couldn’t play an instrument and needed someone to play for them. 

To be on the setlist for Coffee House, there was a mini audition with choir directors, Lisa Holt and Victor Torres.

“During class, Holt and Torres would call us in a practice room and we would perform the song, afterwards we were given notes with any tips to help us perform better,” senior Brady Allen said.

Anyone can find music they love performed at the event, according to Allen.

“I am singing ‘Misty’ by Ella Fitzgerald, which is personally one of my favorite jazz standards and has so much freedom in how you perform it,” Allen said. “I mainly love it for how pretty it is and the softness of the lyrics.”

One of the main rules of the show is that the performers cannot have a backing track, meaning it has to be purely live.

“I love the freedom of the whole process and not being able to use backing tracks,” Allen said. “Only being able to use real live instruments adds to the emotion and passion of the music and makes the energy of all the performances much more genuine.”

Junior Ishani Pandey is singing “Nothing New” by Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers with her friend, senior Charlotte Newman.

“We thought it was a perfect choice for us because they are two of our favorite artists and the song is about getting older and growing up,” Pandey said. “Charlotte and I are very sentimental about getting older together.” 

Pandey is also performing an original song called “small talk.” One of the appeals of Coffee Shop is the opportunity to present original songs made by the students.

“I love letting other people hear my songs and seeing how they connect to them,” Pandey said. “It’s so magical to see others connect with something you hold so close to your heart.”