Meramec hosts inaugural Choral Festival feat. Derric Johnson
By: CASSIE KIBENS
Production Manager
The audience rose to their feet clapping as more than 60 choir singers from Kirkwood High School (KHS), University of Missouri- St. Louis (UMSL) and STLCC-Meramec ran down the risers to hug their guest conductor.
Derric Johnson, Creative Consultant in the area of music and programing for Walt Disney World, was the guest conductor for the inaugural Meramec Choral Festival. The festival was held Friday, Feb. 21 in Meramec Theatre.
“I’ve wanted to do a choral festival here since I came,” said Jerry Myers, Meramec Program Coordinator and Director of Choral Activities. “To me a choral festival is non-competitive and non-evaluative. You learn and you collaborate.”
Johnson spent the hours leading up to the choral concert working with each school separately for 45 minutes, then an hour with the combined choirs. The choirs worked on the pieces in the weeks leading up to the event. The songs featured were some of the music Johnson arranged. Johnson said the schools did a great job with the music and were well prepared.
“[The choirs] perform with energy and happiness,” Johnson said. “It’s exactly what you want. Excellence is where passion and precision merge. A lot of people have great passion, but they have no precision. Other people have great precision but they have no passion.”
Thirty-one members from Meramec’s Concert Choir participated in the Choral Concert and the solos were awarded after auditions. Johnson worked with the soloists during the combination rehearsals.
“Derric is very picky with what he wants which is totally a good thing,” Meramec Choir student, Corey Chaney said. “He’s a really well-known composer, which is really cool. It’s not very often you get to sing for someone like that.”
Myers said he has spent the last couple of years trying to put together the first Meramec Choral Concert and spent time talking with area schools to see who would be interested. KHS and UMSL fit the bill because of their “accomplished directors and premier programs,” Myers said. Choir students at Meramec also enjoyed working with the two schools, Myers said.
“It’s really cool [to work with other schools],” Meramec Choir student, Oliver Dowden said. “It’s really difficult to find such a large ensemble with so many different skilled people at a community college level and the chance that we get to [perform with other schools] is really special.”
Myers said he was very pleased with how the rehearsals and clinics went with Johnson. Myers also said that Johnson did not just focus on the music at the clinics; he also focused on giving advice for life in general. Overall, Myers said he thought the performance went over very well.
“The concert, I think, was a tremendous success,” Myers said. “Every group sat in the house, so they could listen to each other and hopefully learn from each other. Our performance with the combined choirs was quite exciting.”
