After three years in the new building, classroom 308 — the Jonny and Brigitte Schoen Music Room — has finally been reconstituted into a proper practice venue for the Choirhawks, while still serving as a classroom during most of the day.

Improvements started last summer, when a carpet and a new piano were added to the room, and were completed in January with two levels of chair-deep platform risers that had been requested by choir director Mrs. Joelle Keene. The risers were built by Shalhevet maintenance staff Jose Flores and Diego Augustin Sanchez.

Together they greatly improved the acoustics in the room, and the risers enable choir members to see and hear Mrs. Keene’s direction, according to Choirhawk soprano Noa Kligfeld.

Previously the choir had practiced in other rooms, because the piano in the music room was so out of tune, according to senior and bass section leader Daniel Lorell. Despite repeated efforts to repair the donated baby grand, the instrument was broken beyond repair and was replaced by a used Yamaha upright piano, according to Executive Director Sarah Emerson.

The choir now regularly rehearses in the new music room, though it often goes down to the foyer at the end of practice because of the even more beautiful acoustics there, according to Mrs. Keene.