A student choir from a West Baltimore charter school has been racking up millions of views online for turning hits by Michael Jackson, Lauryn Hill and Beyoncé into solfège exercises — the same syllable-based method used to teach sight-reading. Now that same group is headed to Spain this month to compete against choirs from around the world.
The choir belongs to ConneXions: A Community Based Arts School, a public charter school serving grades 6 through 12 in West Baltimore, according to CBS News Baltimore. Brandon Booth, the school's choral instructor and arts department chair, told the station that a student proposed recreating popular songs and theme music using solfège earlier this year, and the idea took off. Booth has also used the format to mark cultural moments, including performing D'Angelo's “[Untitled] (How Does It Feel)” after the singer's death.
Tiyonia Smith, a senior at ConneXions, often requests the songs the choir ends up singing, per the same report. Booth said he writes out each harmony on sheet music and rehearses with one vocal section at a time before the group comes together — and that the entire warm-up and filming process takes only three to five minutes. The exercise, he said, doubles as sight-reading practice, a skill students are tested on every year.
A Choral Program Built Over More Than a Decade
Booth is a Baltimore native trained at the Peabody Institute who grew up playing music at Mount Moriah Baptist Church and spent ten years as a church music director before founding the ConneXions choral program in 2014, according to The Baltimore Times. The program has become a fixture on the competitive circuit, winning first place at national competitions over the past four years, per CBS News Baltimore. At the 2025 Festival Disney competition, the outlet notes that the ensemble achieved a perfect score, with every judge awarding straight 100s.
Booth's own work has drawn recognition well beyond the choir room. He was named a quarterfinalist for the 2027 GRAMMY Music Educator Award, presented by the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum, placing him among 202 music educators selected nationwide for the award process. He was also named a semifinalist for Baltimore City Public Schools' Teacher of the Year award this year, following his 2023 High School Choral Music Educator of the Year honor from Arts Every Day.
From West Baltimore to Barcelona
ConneXions serves a student body that is roughly 94.8% Black, and nearly 89% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, according to Baltimore City Public Schools. The school operates out of a building it shares with Bard High School Early College Baltimore at 2801 N. Dukeland Street in the Greater Mondawmin community. Booth told the station the ConneXions ensemble is normally the only all-Black choir and the smallest choir at the competitions it enters.
That track record is now taking the choir to Sing for Gold 2026 — the World Choral Cup, an Interkultur-hosted competition running October 22 through October 26 in Calella and Barcelona. The event will draw 38 choirs from 24 countries competing for gold medals and a €2,500 grand prize, with venues including Barcelona's Auditori del Conservatori del Liceu and the Sagrada Família. First held in 2022, this will be the biennial tournament's third edition.
Students rehearsed pieces in Latin and German throughout the summer to prepare, and the choir's repertoire spans multiple languages, including French and Mandarin, along with atonal harmonies and arrangements built for eight or twelve vocal parts. The curriculum extends beyond solfège clips into classical choral works, spirituals, gospel and R&B, with students learning vocal technique alongside the historical and cultural context behind each piece, per the Baltimore Times.
A First Trip Abroad for Many Singers
Milton Jackson, who graduated from ConneXions in 2024, said singing with the choir pushed him to expand his vocal range, and he now moves between vocal parts to cover gaps when singers are missing, according to CBS News Baltimore. Smith said she hopes the Barcelona trip will let her exchange ideas with other performers and pick up new breath-support techniques. For many of the students and alumni making the trip, it will be the first time they have traveled outside the country.
Booth said he wants the experience to give students exposure to a different culture while also showcasing Baltimore's talent and the school's excellence on an international stage. The GRAMMY Music Educator Award, for which Booth remains in contention, carries $10,000 for its eventual top winner plus a matching grant for that educator's school music program, while finalists and semifinalists receive cash honorariums between $500 and $1,000 for their programs.
