Pacelli students chosen for elite choir

Published 7:52 am Friday, January 7, 2011

Pacelli High School students Abby Leif, Amy Johnson, Max Brennan and Colton Scherer are going to this year's Dorian Choral Festival at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. They'll be part of a massive 1,400 member choir which will perform Monday, Jan. 10. - Trey Mewes/trey.mewes@austindailyherald.com

A choir usually doesn’t have 1,400 members. At the annual Dorian Choral Festival at Luther College, more than 1,200 high school juniors and seniors work together to produce a massive performance as a single choir group. This year, four Pacelii students will be a part of that choir, estimated to be at 1,400 students.

Pacelli students have gone to the Dorian Choral Festival at Luther College for years, according to Kelsey Korfhage, Pacelli’s Music Specialist.

“It’s just such an experience,” Korfhage said. “You’re not going to find 1,400 singers any place you go.”

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Senior Colton Scherer and juniors Abby Leif, Amy Johnson and Max Brennan will go to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, this weekend to prepare for a massive performance on Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.

“It’s a great honor,” Brennan said. “It will be a lot different from our choir.”

Several nominees from 360 high schools around the region attend. This year’s participants were nominated for their dedication to choir, Korfhage said. They will work as a large choir and in men’s and women’s choirs, working on advanced music not every high schooler is exposed to.

“There’s only a select few they pick every year,” Leif said.

In addition, Scherer has been selected to perform in the Chamber choir, which consists of about 100 members who are chosen from the 1,400 students. The high school students will also be joined by the Nordic Choir, which is Luther College’s top choir.

The students will return Monday night after their concert is done, according to Korfhage. Korfhage remembers going to Dorian when she was in high school, and is glad she can take her students there too.

“There’s no way you can fully comprehend what it’s like to be there,” she said. “It’s magical. The sound I think will really inspire the students to work harder this next semester.”