There’s something powerful and profound about the sound of multiple human voices raised together in song. From the church sanctuary to the opera house, a chorus commands a room in a way that a single voice, a duo or even an octet just can’t match.

It’s the sound of unity, and community, of a large group acting as one – strength in numbers – and the effect can be exhilarating.

That’s the master plan behind One City Chorus, the 75-member-strong, all-volunteer singing group celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

One City Chorus’ annual concert, titled Metamorphosis, takes place Sunday (Feb. 22) in the Palladium Theater’s Hough Hall. The program begins at 4 p.m.

It’ll be the first One City concert under the leadership of Artistic Director Chris Romeo, who took over last spring from the chorus’ founders Jon Arterton and James Mack, who moved out of town.

Romeo, who has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of South Florida, is a familiar face (and tenor voice) with the St. Petersburg Opera Company. He is also an adjunct professor at St. Leo College and Hillsborough Community College Ybor.

And he directs Diversity – The Voices of Sarasota, a community chorus that specializes in LGBTQ and politically-charged music.

One City Chorus’ message is always peace, unity and healing. Every time. Every tune

Another passion of Romeo’s is Music Therapy – he works with special needs individuals, as well as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s patients. Before pursuing music as a career, he was a Pre-Med student at USF.

“I was always interested in the medical field, but I loved music,” he said. “As a young person, it was hard to envision a life in music. And your father’s always saying ‘You’ve gotta have options. Be practical.’ Things like that.”

Music Therapy was the answer. “I felt like it was a nice merge of the two.”

Romeo said he thinks of One City as a “healing thing,” and his choice of songs for Sunday’s concert, from Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and John Lennon’s “Imagine,” to Matisyahu’s “One Day,” Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and the Disney tune “Colors of the Wind,” reflect that.

“With the climate of the country right now,” Romeo explained, “I feel like it’s just a great message to talk about – we need to come together. To stand together. I loved the message from the Super Bowl that love is stronger than hate. I just want to continue that message.”

To that point, One City Chorus is open to all, regardless of singing experience. “I do understand that people learn differently,” he said. “And so we want to make sure we have a lot of different tools for different people to learn the songs however they need to learn the songs.

“Because some people, even though they don’t sing … they do sing. They just don’t know how to read music. So we can give them just the track to listen to – the way you did your whole life, just listening to pop songs. And you can memorize your lines, because we have tracks that isolate parts, so you can memorize just yours.”

The group rehearses Monday nights at St. Petersburg’s Allendale United Methodist Church. It’s just one of many pins in a very large map for Romeo, who resides in North Tampa.

Then there’s his four-member singing group, Klassika, which performs at weddings, private functions, corporate events and more. Lately he’s been running lights and sound for St. Pete Opera events at the group’s headquarters building, and will be part of the next SPO production, La Boheme, in June.

One City Chorus, and Sunday’s Metamorphosis concert, are the only things on his mind right now. He likes to think of the group as “a collective mindset. I think everyone feels safe and comfortable here.

“People come together, experience something they don’t get to experience other places … and we don’t want to push anyone away. Even if they don’t think they could be part of a choir, we encourage them to join us and try.

“Sometimes it brings things out of people they didn’t know they had.”

Tickets for the Sunday event are available at this link.

One City Chorus’ 2025 Palladium concert. Photo provided.