On February 27, at 7:01 p.m. the West Chicago choir and orchestra ensembles got ready to take the stage in order to perform songs for the annual winter concert, the program included songs from the string, concert and honors symphony orchestra, along with mixed, chamber and concert choirs, students began practicing for the first performance following winter break.

Before the beginning of the performance, it was made clear by choir director Brandon Fantozzi that the school was monitoring the preexisting harsh weather conditions, and that members of the audience were free to leave at anytime throughout the performance.

However, the audience only got to hear two songs from the mixed choir, and three songs from chamber, before the group was interrupted by a loud tornado warning going off on audience members’ phones. Despite this, the choir sang on and finished off with “Every Breath You Take.”

“I was sad it happened  during my favorite song and it was stressful preparing but it’s nice to have more time to practice,” junior Wilbur Cooper said.

Moments after the song, the audience was ushered to the lowest part of the school, directly opposite of the child development rooms, where they were held until approximately 8:00 p.m.

The chamber choir continued to sing on the steps throughout the tornado watch, and sang songs from the program.

Reportedly, the concert will be rescheduled for a later date, so the performers will still get a chance to showcase the songs, they have been working on.

The tornado watch remained valid until 10:00 p.m. CST and included Cook, Will  and DuPage Counties, and some parts of Indiana.