Washington 6th graders Bailey Rees, Allison Rees, Alecia Goff, and Kevin Flannery

Mid-Prairie 9th grader Ty Waters

Four Washington sixth-grade students and one Mid-Prairie ninth-grade student will be performing Thursday at the Opus Honor Choir in Ames. The Washington students include Kevin Flannery, Alecia Goff, Allison Rees, and Bailey Rees, who will be among the 180 students in the fifth- and sixth-grade mixed honor choir. Ty Waters of Mid-Prairie will join the ninth-grade mixed honor choir, which will be conducted by Mid-Prairie alumni Luke Johnson. Johnson was a part of the seventh and eighth-grade bass choir and the ninth-grade mixed choir while he was in school, and he says taking part in Opus can be transformative for young singers. He believes an experience like Opus or All-State can spark someone’s desire to be involved in music for the rest of their lives. He adds, “It’s a really cool moment for a lot of those students, because for the first time many of them will be experiencing this amazing musical product that might inspire them to go into music someday.”

There were over 3,000 students around the state who auditioned for the four Opus choirs, with 720 selected. The concert will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday in Stephens Auditorium at Iowa State University. For more information about the Opus Honor Choir, listen to the In Touch with Southeast Iowa interview with Johnson at KCIIRadio.com.