NATCHEZ — It only takes half a dozen students gathered around a simple wooden piano in the Natchez High School music room to make an angelic sound.

The student group is so trained and so skilled, they need no warm-up time, they just pick a song and sing.

“They’re a great group,” NHS Choral Director Darlene McCune said looking at her students.

And of the choir’s approximately 40 members, the six around the piano Wednesday, represent the best of the best.

The six were recently named to the Delta State University Honor Choir and the Allstate Honor Choir.

McCune said this year marks the first the school has auditioned for either of the choirs.

“And we did really well,” she said. “They all did well.”

Four of the choir’s members actually won scholarships to Delta State after auditioning for the choir.

But for most of the six, choir isn’t about awards or scholarships or special choral appointments, it’s about singing.

“This is what we love to do,” said Edwin Smith, a senior at the school.

Smith and the choir’s other three senior members all won scholarships to Delta State.

And Althea Stewart said it’s that love of singing that’s kept her in choir for so long.

McCune, now in her first year at the high school, said she has been teaching music to most of the six since their grade school days.

“When you’re here,” Stewart said. “You’re with people who love the same thing you do, and they take it seriously. And it’s a great feeling.”