Wearing black outfits, 36 people stood in two semicircles at the front of a dance studio on a Saturday afternoon. They hummed musical scales and warmed up vocal cords while the murmur of spectators vibrated in the air alongside their exercises.
Performances of “Opening Hearts,” the most recent show in Chorus Austin’s 2025-2026 Season of Unity, took place on Feb. 28 and March 1 at East Side Performing Arts. The show focused on love in all its forms, not only the romantic, through the lens of contemporary music.
While usually a dance studio, East Side Performing Arts transformed into a pseudo-choir hall for the weekend to host Chorus Austin. The space did not boast the vaulted ceilings of a cathedral or the finely tuned acoustics of a concert hall, but, for the weekend, it provided an intimate atmosphere in which the front row sat only a few feet behind conductor and director Ryan Heller.
Heller arrived dressed in all black, save for a pair of purple shoes. He emerged to the front of the singers with a smile on his face, greeted the crowd, and proceeded to conduct the first song of the afternoon, “Love is Welcome Here,” by Catherine Dalton and Joe Davis. This piece set the stage for the performance, with the performers proclaiming at both the beginning and end of the song that “only love is welcome here.” The song also contained a speaking part, which gave the audience permission “to show up and be your most authentic self.” An emotional gasp from an audience member arose as the fading voices ended the song. Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Invitation to Love” followed. The interspersion of spoken poetry between groups of songs varied the flow of the performance.
The content of the songs explored love in all its different facets. Shara Nova’s “I Have Never Loved Someone” captured a mother’s love towards her newborn child, with the slower tempo and softer volume adding to this tender emotion. “Jenny Kiss’d Me” by Leigh Hunt followed immediately after, contrasting with the previous song through a short 80-second length and the excited repetition of the title, which encapsulated the feeling of the songwriter’s crush.
Heller introduced variety through songs such as Mario Benedetti’s “Te Quiero”, performed entirely in Spanish, as well as Abbie Betinis’s “Love is Love is Love is Love,” in which Heller took to a piano and invited the audience to sing along.
“You’re all in the choir,” he said.
“Cells Planets” by Erika Lloyd saw tenor Hunter Sabin take center stage and put on an impressive and expressive performance.
Heller surprised the audience with a fifteenth and final song not listed in the performance pamphlet — ”Everything Possible” by Fred Small. As the final line of the piece faded into the air, the room became quiet for a moment, a calm that suddenly turned into a standing ovation.
Opening Hearts proved a diverse, emotional and harmonious exploration of love through song, providing an impressive addition to Chorus Austin’s Season of Unity.
