JACKSONVILLE, Fla.— From the altos to the sopranos, the RiverTones prepare for their upcoming concert in mid-March.

This vocal ensemble is filled with women who are passionate in making beautiful harmonies together and shedding a light on different genres of music.

These women are  gearing up for the third annual “Spring Sing!” concert to be held March 19. Among the performers is JU student Taylor Despars.

“I’m really excited because this is my first Spring Sing,” said Despars. “And it’s the RiverTones’ thing and I get to experience that with people I’m obviously really close to in the RiverTones. Professor Barone has been really amazing in the past two semesters.”

The RiverTones boasts a diverse range of music majors, such as Tay Covington.

“I major in music business,” said Tay Covington. “Our professor who is over the music business department, Dr. Mark Synder, has actually been very instrumental in my life with teaching me different things like contracting, licensing, publishing and managing artists.”

For the event, the group is preparing to perform a wide variety of songs. Some songs will have a jazz-like quality and other songs pay homage to early classical music and highlight the beauty of music across the globe.

Dina Barone, associate professor of music, is proud that she is a part of a school where the arts program has freedom to express all genres of music.

“I come from a conservatory background where everything is kind of in a box,” said Barone. “What I like about JU is that it’s so open to all different majors and minors. I work with dance majors, I work with music management, music performance, music theatre, music ed, just in this one group of twelve people alone.”

With the music program being so diverse and full of students with different backgrounds, students are encouraged to express their individuality through the arts.

The Spring Sing will include faculty performances, as well as performances from guest artists. During the concert, the musical theatre department will get a chance to promote their upcoming performance of “Light in the Piazza.”

Students within the program have had to put in the effort to prepare for the concert. To some, however, it is not work at all.

“It doesn’t really seem like work,” said Despars. “I want to go practice. I want to work on stuff and just work on my craft. It doesn’t seem like I’m doing homework, it seems like I’m just having fun doing what I love.”