Choir’s resurrection culminates at Carnegie Hall

And although the Big Apple was a big deal to the 19 Manual High School students who made the trip east, they handled their Carnegie Hall debut without missing a note, overcoming this challenge just as they’ve overcome many personal obstacles in their lives.

The ManualAires’ journey here began four years ago when a young teacher, Spencer Lloyd, took over the struggling Southside school’s nearly defunct choir. Pouring himself into the task, Lloyd, 28, grew the choir’s roster during his first two years at the school.

Then, reaching back into the school’s long history, he resurrected the ManualAires, a show choir that requires its members to dedicate themselves to honing their talent. In a school that lost its football team to apathy and loses many students to academic indifference, the show choir offered Lloyd the chance to show that his students are capable of excelling and that his school need not be defined only by its depressing test scores and dropout rate.