The Advanced Ladies Chamber Ensemble from Parkway South was chosen to perform at this year’s Missouri Music Educators Association Conference at Lake of the Ozark’s Tan-Tar-A Resort on January 29, but performed for the first time at Missouri Baptist University January 25. Last spring, in order to be eligible to be chosen, the class sent in a video of their choir singing three different songs. The MMEA out-of-state judges received about 50 videos. Thirty other choirs, ranging from middle school to university level, were chosen to sing at the conference –including ten high school choirs.

At the conference, they warmed for an hour and then performed at 12:30. Each choir sang for 25 minutes. The theme the conference has put in place is “Journey.” Their whole performance was broken down into three sets all dealing with a journey subset: love, in time and space, and ending.

In the love set, they sang “Ad Amore” by Lee R. Kesselman from Dante Purgatorio, “Svatba” by Kristo Todorov, and “Waters Ripple and Flow” by Deems Taylor.

Freshman Nora Lackey is enamored with the love set.

“We have been working since the beginning of the school year to get ready for this performance. I’m super excited! I really love the love set! I especially love the song Svatba by Kristo Todorov. It just sounds incredible.”

In the time and space set, senior Abby Benson sang a solo from the song “Diu Diu Dang”, a taiwanese folk song that has been translated that recreates the sound of a train starting slow then picking up speed and then it finally getting to its destination. In this set, there are sounds of the water droplets during the performance (diu diu dang a), and the trains whistle. In this set, the choir also sang “The Bike Let Loose” by Edie Hall. For the final set, the Journey of Ending, the choir sang “The Letter” by Ron Atterberry, which was first a letter from an adult child to their parent who has alzheimer’s, but has been translated into a song. They will also sang “Precious Lord, Take my Hand” arranged by Charlie Kinnison, it was originally a gospel song by Rev. Thomas A Dorsey.

Overall, the choir seems to be happy with its progress and the performance.

Junior Maya Cameron thinks that they will be able to do really well.

“We have been practicing a lot. I know I have put in a lot of work. Twenty fives minutes is a really long time. I’m nervous and excited. I really love the time and space set.  I think we will do well.” Cameron said.

Choir Director Jonathan Owen is optimistic about the choir’s performance. “ I really like all the music. The girls have been working really hard. I have brought eight choirs to this conference, and I think this is gonna be a great show,” he said.