A high school senior performing at a state-wide choir show collapsed on stage while performing and later died at hospital, the family said.
Daniel Moshi, 17, had been singing at the All State Honors Show Choir at Naperville North High School on Friday night when the young boy shocked the crowd and fell to the ground, NBC Chicago reported.
“I got the call from his teacher, musical teacher. And she said there’s an incident,” his father, Loden Moshi, said during an interview with NBC Chicago.
His mother, Karolin Moshi, relayed in the same interview how when she’d dropped him for school earlier that day, he seemed perfectly normal.
“He texted me, ‘Mom, I’m here’ at around 5 o’clock approximately,” said Ms Moshi. “I texted him, ‘I said everything good?’ I have his text. He said, ‘Yep, all good mom.’”
Not long after receiving what would be her final text message from her teenage son, she got a call that confirmed something entirely unexpected.
“They told us that while he was doing his solo, he just passed out,” she said. “He collapsed, and we don’t know anything else.”
Shortly after falling to the ground, first responders were called to the scene to respond to reports of an “unconscious” boy. They arrived at the Naperville school at approximately 6.18pm and from there, he was taken to Edwards Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The teen’s cause of death, which has not been announced, is still unclear and there were no public updates available into the investigation, the DuPage County coroner’s office said early Wednesday, according to NBC.
Tributes for the young boy began pouring in online where fellow-choir members and teachers remembered the soloist as a “beautiful person” who, above everything else, loved to sing.
“He will be missed from all who have chance to know him he was humble, active and loved by all,” wrote a relative of the 17-year-old’s on Facebook, while sharing a recent video where he sang at a church function where his father accompanied him on keyboard.
Laura Coster, president of Illinois American Choral Directors Association, said in another Facebook post: “[We are] saddened by the loss of this beautiful person who loved to sing. Our condolences to his family, the students, the directors, and to ... students in the Leyden district.”
In a statement issued to NBC, a spokesperson for Leyden High School disclosed how the whole community was grieving the loss of the 17-year-old who had aspirations of one day performing on Broadway: “This loss impacts our entire Leyden community. Our students and staff are grieving and our focus is on their well being.”
In addition to his involvement in his school’s honor choir, Daniel was also a lead alto singer at St Andrew’s Assyrian Church in Glenview, according to a Facebook post.
“Last night we lost one of the best members of our church’s youth,” wrote Hani A Khiziran, commemorating the high school senior as “a smart, educated, polite young person. Daniel had an angelic voice and I enjoyed every time hearing him while he was performing at St. Andrew’s Church. The heaven gained an angel today. You will be missed dearly.”
