21,024,000 minutes–how do you measure the life of a choir? Choir of the Sound concludes its 40th anniversary season with a stroll through the past 40 years of Tony Award-winning musicals, including RENT, the 1996 hit musical about life and struggles in New York City’s East Village during the HIV/AIDS crisis. RENT took many elements from Puccini’s opera La Bohème, including basic premise, characters, and music (e.g., “Musetta’s Waltz”). In addition, RENT premiered exactly 100 years after La Bohème did. RENT’s creator, Jonathan Larson, also drew on much of his own experience living in New York (e.g., illegal wood-burning stove, broken buzzer, girlfriend leaving for another woman). Unfortunately, Larson was never able to see his dream come to life on Broadway, as he died the night before the Off-Broadway premiere from an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm, likely from Marfan Syndrome. The musical received critical acclaim for its raw emotion and its representation of HIV+ individuals. As Choir of the Sound caps off its anniversary year, come join us for a season of musicals and a season of love!