For the past several weeks, Ms. Nolemi and several students in the music program have been working diligently on transforming room D135.

In the past, band and chorus classes were scattered in classrooms across the band wing, with the same classroom housing a band class one period and a chorus class the next. This year, however, D135 has become the official chorus room. This change was met with enthusiasm by Ms. Nolemi, also known as the Choir Queen, and she decided to make the room truly her own. “I want this room to be a kind of home for my students,” she said.

First to go was the color of the walls. Ms. Nolemi and her students, mostly the lovely ladies of her Women’s Chorus classes, decided on a beautiful sky blue color to replace the boring off white hue that was there originally. Next, to be changed was the royal blue color of the lockers. Ms. Nolemi, a proud alumna of Tottenville High School, chose a palette of Tottenville pride purple and white for the lockers, radiators, and doors. Above the lockers, the graffiti-inspired mural of the word music was removed. The new mural, designed and painted by Concert Choir senior Monique Razzouk, sports the word “iChoir” which is surrounded by singers dressed in purple chorus robes and several music notes.

The old, faded posters of musical instruments were replaced by a hand-painted portrait of Beethoven painted by Ms. Nolemi herself. She used an ingenious technique called pointillism to create a work she calls “Immortal Beethoven”. If you stand close to the picture, you see only hundreds of dots, some painted close together and some further apart. When you back up a few feet, however, you are able to see the image of Beethoven’s face.

Other additions to the classroom include evidence of the choruses’ silly sense of humor. Monique Razzouk, the talented artist who designed the “iChoir” mural, is working on a second portrait of Beethoven, dubbed “Bee-fro-ven” by members of the Concert Choir because of his crazy afro-like hair. A picture of a chipmunk wearing a pirate hat and wielding a sword, a product of Concert Choir senior Gregory Lella’s imagination, has been painted on the radiator.

The finished product has created a classroom with a fun and homey vibe. For many members of the chorus, D135 is a place to meet up before after-school activities, to hang out during free periods, but most of all, a place where good friends and wonderful high school memories are made.