Oak Harbor High School choir students are working with two community organizations to put on a show next year.

The two auditioned choirs at the school, the Treble Choir and the Harbor Singers, are teaming with Whidbey Island adult singers and the Saratoga Orchestra for one big concert next year.

That’s about 150 people who will lend their voices to the classic piece “Carmina Burana.”

The words of this performance were written about 700 years ago by traveling musicians, according to Choir Director Darren McCoy. The music was written by a man named Carl Orff, a German composer who survived World War II living in Germany.

“The music is very, very exciting,” McCoy said, “and very, very challenging stamina-wise.”

Though the concert won’t be until March, the choirs are already rehearsing the music “24/7,” said junior Madison Pewitt, a member of the Treble Choir.

Pewitt said that McCoy’s plan is to incorporate music from “Carmina Burana” into the other concerts the choirs are performing so they have more time to get used to the music and have fewer pieces to learn outside of it.

“There’s so much music that it kind of makes it hard for us to do any other concerts this year,” McCoy said.

He said that this collaborative performance came when the new director of the Saratoga Orchestra, Anna Edwards, approached him with the idea.

“She asked me if I would be willing to do a combined project together,” McCoy said. “One of their main focuses is trying to bring more orchestral music to the island.”

“This is something that Anna is very committed to,” said the orchestra’s executive director, Larry Heidel. “She is an educator at heart and by profession.”

The orchestra is also responsible for finding the approximately 50 adult singers to round out the music, according to Heidel. He said information can be found on their website at www.sowhidbey.com/call-for-singers.html

This is the first time the high school has done a collaboration like this.

McCoy said that in the past, they’ve worked with other choirs, like from the middle school, and they’ve worked with the high school band, but never with an orchestra.

“Everyone’s really, really excited to work with the orchestra because it’s something we’ve never done and the school has never done,” Pewitt said, “so it’s new for everybody.”

Pewitt said that the choir is both excited and nervous to start working with the orchestra and their director because the way Edwards approaches the music could be different from McCoy’s approach.

So far, the choirs have not had any rehearsals with the orchestra, something that won’t happen until just before the performance itself.

“That’s pretty standard for a choir with an orchestra,” McCoy said. “You work separately, then you put it together within, like, three rehearsals and then the show.”

This is the first time they’ve worked with an orchestra, but if it goes well, McCoy said they would do it again.

“We would probably do it in waves of complexity,” he said, “so next year we wouldn’t do something so hard.”

Heidel also said that future collaborations are a probable occurrence in the future, partially because of Edwards’ passion as an educator.

“She’s very committed to giving youths opportunities where she can,” Heidel said of Edwards.

The last time the choirs worked with the band, in 2011, McCoy said they performed pieces from “Carmina Burana.”

“A lot of people were asking … we should have an encore of it,” McCoy said. “I suppose if people wanted an encore, this is it.”