The voices of 143 5th graders filled Central Campus on Saturday for a performance of the Des Moines Public Schools Honor Choir.
The students, representing 17 different schools, gathered in the morning for rehearsal before taking the stage in the Central auditorium for a concert that consisted of five works:
- “Let Music Surround You” (Fran Smartt Addicott)
- “Dance of the Willow” (Victoria Ebel-Sabo)
- “W’au Saw the Forty-Second “ (Scottish Folksong)
- “Inscription of Hope” (Z. Randall Stroope)
- “I Let Her Go-Go” (arr. by Douglas Beam)
Des Moines elementary schools represented in the honor choir were Greenwood, Hanawalt, Hillis, Hubbell, Jackson, Monroe, Morris, Moulton, Park Avenue, Phillips, Pleasant Hill, River Woods, Samuelson, South Union, Stowe, Studebaker and Walnut Street.
This year’s guest clinician – helping to direct these many voices singing together for the first time – was Sandy Miler, the general music teacher at Timber Ridge School in Johnston. The choir was accompanied on piano by Patty Trump.
Music teachers Anne Peterson of South Union and Heather Bagley of River Woods, along with Kelly Kretschmer, the district’s fine and performing arts curriculum coordinator, organized this year’s event.
For a list of the students who participated in the honor choir, click here download a copy of the program.
