Music Director Michael Ogdon will travel with his choral groups, Celebration Choir and Adoration Ensemble, to the Music Educator’s National Conference (MENC*) Choral Festival at St. Therese Catholic Church in Fresno, March 20.
MENC hosts annual festivals to showcase choral and instrumental group talent for nationally accredited judges. These festivals are set up regionally, but are judged according to national standards. Group rankings are earned according to how well the ensembles perform.
In addition to Ogdons’ music groups Choral Director Susan Ainley will bring the elementary and junior high choirs to this adjudicated festival. Students are scheduled to leave for the church at 12:30 p.m. and will be returning to the school around 5 p.m. Ogdon plans to showcase a few of the song choices from high school choir’s previous festival in Pasadena: ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International).
The MENC performance at St. Therese Catholic Church is near Fresno City College and the FC choral groups will sing in front of up to ten local school choirs. One of the adjudicators is Dr. Roy Klassen, who recently retired from Fresno Pacific University as the director of choral activities.
Over the years, Dr. Klassen has mentored the FC choral program under previous directors while continuing to lead the choral program at Fresno Pacific University.
They FC choirs will conclude the songs they perform with one they specifically learned for the Pasadena Musicale earlier in the month. They will perform John Ness Beck’s “Song of Exaltation,” singing in a two-choir format with the Ensemble and choir split; each group will carry a portion of the song on their own.
The Adoration Ensemble will return to St. Therese on Wednesday to perform on their own. They will be the smallest group on the Wednesday slate with only nine singers.
*Music Educator’s National Conference (MENC*) is in the process of changing its name. The website reflects this change and the group will now be known as National Association for Music Education (NAfME).
For more photos, check out New work space or ANNOUNCEMENT: Powder Puff. For more information on Roy Klassen, read The Fresno Bee’s April 25, 2010, article, “More thoughts on Roy Klassen’s retirement.”
