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They are in choir for different reasons.

Caleb Hoffman joined by accident.

Corren Pearl enjoyed singing at church.

Brittany Stewart and Krissy Weidmaier each watched their older sisters enjoy it.

Jake Fotheringhame is there for the girls.

What these Kearney High School students all have in common is making all-state choir to perform at the Missouri Music Educator’s Association annual conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort at Lake of the Ozarks this weekend.

What does it take to get to all-state choir? The same as getting Carnegie Hall (where they will be performing this summer): practice.

“Lots of choir,” Fotheringhame, a senior, said. “Lots of choir.”

They each represent a different section — the first time choir director Jason Elam is aware of that happening in Kearney.

“We have had four in the past, but definitely not such an even distribution,” Elam wrote in an e-mail.

Hoffman sings tenor, Pearl sings soprano, Fotheringhame sings bass and Stewart sings alto. Weidmaier is an alternate singing soprano.

“We were all excited because there’s five of us, so it’s a good representation from our school,” Weidmaier, a senior, said. “We were all excited, not just for us, for the choir.”

Each said had doubt they would make and were excited to learn they did so well in the audition. Even Pearl, a senior, and Stewart, a senior, who made the list last year. Stewart was an alternate last year.

“I was scared I wasn’t going to make it again because the song was really hard this year,” Pearl said.

Judges took the students’ scores from district competition and added it to scores at the all-state audition. The students had to sing along to a four-part CD, but their part (i.e. soprano) was not in the CD.

Style and range in the song made it difficult, they said.

“Just the weird breaks and stuff they added — it wasn’t written in the music, it was there on the CD, so you had to know what was part of the CD,” Stewart said.

Timing wasn’t the only obstacle.

“For altos it was really low, then it would jump up and be really high really fast. I didn’t like it.” Weidmaier said.

But they each feel they have had an aptitude for singing.

“I actually joined choir on accident,” said Hoffman, a junior who joined choir in seventh grade. “I wanted to be in band, but couldn’t join, so I ended up joining choir. It really stuck with me, I really enjoy it.”

Pearl recalled singing in church a lot as a young child when her father was a pastor at a church.

“I just always liked to sing,” said Pearl, who joined choir in eighth grade.

Stewart and Weidmaier also joined in eighth grade after seeing how much fun their older sisters had in choir.

Fotheringhame joined as a freshman. The girl-to-guy ratio seemed like a good deal since there were few men in the choir. He said the music has worked out better than the girls for him so far.

They all said good direction from Elam kept them coming back.

“I am extremely happy for these students,” Elam wrote in an e-mail. “I know they all worked very hard to achieve this honor.

Another thing these Kearney High School students have

in common is camaraderie.

“This chamber choir is supposed to be like a family, so you make a lot of friends in Chamber Choir,” Stewart said.

Weidmaier concurred.

“We’re happy we all get to go to all state, we’re all friends,” Weidmaier said.

The all-state veteran of the group assured a good time would be had by all.

“This is going to be amazing and everybody is going to remember it forever,” Pearl said.

Kearney Editor Kevin M. Smith can be reached at 628-6010 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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