University Choir performing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 8, 2024 (credit: Purdue University Marketing & Communications)

Words - Abi Bruno

Smiling for the cameras pointed our direction, we waited in anticipation to sing for the enormous crowd of people gathered at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the total solar eclipse. We were excited to perform in front of such a massive audience, the largest University Choir had ever seen. We all laughed as the announcer referred to us as the “Men’s Glee Club”, but even that mishap could not stop us from singing our hearts out. Starting around one o’clock, we took the stage and performed several songs alongside the Purdue All-American Marching Band, including “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away” and “Purdue Hymn.”

Ensemble member Paige Gonzales expressed her appreciation for this important opportunity for the ensemble.

“University Choir…[has] really started to make a name for ourselves on campus, but nothing compares to sharing our talents and passions with that many people,” Gonzales said. “It was a once in a lifetime experience with a once in a lifetime group of people.”

In the downtime before the cosmic event, we explored the circuit. We walked around, chatted, killed time. The smell of sizzling barbecue and fried foods from local vendors filled the air. The crowd buzzed with excitement. Children ran around wearing their eclipse glasses while their parents, donned in eclipse themed t-shirts, took photos to commemorate the occasion. Periodically, someone would gaze up to the sky, checking the progress of the moon’s orbit. At this unique event, we were also the giddy crowd waiting for the performance to begin, with the sun and moon the literal stars of the show.

Around three o’clock, excitement reached a fever pitch. The temperature began to drop, and a cool breeze rushed over us as a blanket of darkness slowly covered the sky. High above us, the sun turned into a tiny sliver of light. Six minutes later, an ethereal ring replaced the blinding sunlight. Taking off their glasses, the elated crowd clapped and cheered. It was the moment we had all been waiting for. Under the sun and moon’s subtle glow, people waltzed to music playing on the venue’s speaker system, others took photos and videos, many just looked up in awe.

Strauss’ “The Blue Danube” waltzed out of the speakers, and I was struck with amazement, thinking of how thousands of people, including all of us in the University Choir, traveled many miles for this stunning celestial experience. For those four and a half minutes, all I could think of was how beautiful and unifying it was to be there, in that place, with all those stargazers. I wasn’t alone in that feeling either. Lilly Pirotto expressed her gratitude for sharing this special experience with everyone in the ensemble.

“Not only did we get to travel to the Speedway, perform in front of 50,000 people, and witness a once in a lifetime event, we did all of it together,” Pirrotto said. “The day was full of new challenges, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way, experiencing it as a choir, a team, a family.”

After the moon departed, we navigated through the crowd, consolidated ensemble members, hopped on a single bus, and left. The day had its difficulties, and the long ride back was no different - crowded, humid, stuck in seemingly endless traffic - but we couldn’t help but look back on our day together with joy, forever amazed by the overwhelming feeling of unity when when we lifted our eyes, and our voices, up to the cosmos, together.