NATCHEZ &045; Seeing a male high school student in a frilly green dress and tights should be the first clue that the members of the Natchez High choirs love what they do.

For Caleb Johnson his renaissance-style dress is what it takes to accurately represent his award-winning choir.

Johnson is one of 48 singers that compose six different NHS choirs, all of which will be on display tonight.

The choral music department will host its annual spring concert &uot;An Evening in Song,&uot; at 7 p.m. today in the NHS auditorium.

And this group isn’t just any high school choir. The freshman through senior singers recently returned from the State Choral Festival in Pearl with three superior ratings and three excellent ratings. Superior is the highest rating given.

SSA Chorus, sextet and TTBB chorus all received excellent ratings, while concert chorus, quartet and madrigal took the superior marks.

Concert chorus and madrigals have received superiors at all festivals attended this school year.

In February, the groups participated in the District VII Choral Festival at Southwest Community College in Summit and received a superior rating for all choirs.

The students also competed against other high schools in the sight reading category and received an excellent rating.

&uot;They give you music you’ve never looked at, something you’ve never heard,&uot; James Matthews said. &uot;And it’s not easy.&uot;

Last semester, the group participated in the first-ever Ole Miss Choral Festival. Madrigal, men’s glee club and the concert chorus got superiors. SSA chorus got an excellent.

The long practices and high expectations from choir Director Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis aren’t too much to handle, the students said.

&uot;It’s like a big family,&uot; senior Erica Davis said.

&uot;We love these people,&uot; White said.

Davis and White said Arceneaux-Mathis does whatever it takes to motivate the students to come home with superior ratings.