Three McMinnville middle school students have been selected to participate in the 2016 Oregon Music Education Association Young Women Middle School Honor Choir. The students, Duniway’s Kylie Timberlake and Patton’s Mara Cruz and Evelyn Dickey, will be part of 125-member middle school young women’s choir made up from students from around the state.
These students have to show outstanding musicality and submit an audition recording that’s judged by a panel of screeners. In most years, there are over 400 singers who apply and try out for this choir.
This year’s students will be directed by Dr. Therees Hibbard from St. Olaf College. She conducts the college’s Manitou Singers and the Early Music Singers. Dr. Hibbard has also been a conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival’s Youth Choral Academy, which takes place each summer in Eugene.
The concert will take place January 14-15, 2016 at the OMEA State Conference.
“This is an once-in-a-lifetime experience for middle school students to have with an international conductor and to sing with the best middle school young women singers in the state of Oregon,” said Joseph Demianew, choral director for both Duniway and Patton. “This is a great honor.”