Thursday, February 8, 2024
Yellow Choir Concert: 3:30 p.m.
Blue Choir Concert: 5:00 p.m.
The Elementary Festival Honor Choir is an independent honor choir of approximately 180 fourth, fifth and sixth grade students who are selected by recorded audition. The choir meets and performs each year during the Annual SDSU Choral Day event.
- Students must be in the fourth, fifth or sixth grade at the time of audition.
- Students must be recommended by their school music teacher, director or private instructor.*
- Teachers and students must work together to submit an audition form and upload an audio file.
- A $5 registration fee is required of each student that auditions.
- Students chosen to be part of the Elementary Honor Choir must be accompanied by their music teacher on the day of the festival.
- Audio files must be uploaded to the link provided at registration
Students selected for the Elementary Honor Choir will practice in Brookings during the day and end with a concert in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center. An additional charge of $35 per student is assessed once a student receives notification of acceptance. The charge covers the cost of a t-shirt (worn during the performance), lunch, snack breaks and music. An additional set of music will be provided to each teacher who has students selected.
*Parents are not allowed to submit. Schools of any size (private or public) are able to submit auditions.
Featured Conductor - Ruth E. Dwyer
Ruth E. Dwyer is internationally recognized as a treble and children’s choir specialist and Kodály educator. She has been the guest conductor for the OAKE National Children’s Choir, numerous ACDA All-State Choirs and NAfME. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Hoosier Hills Choral Festival in Southern Indiana. She founded and directed Philanthropy Through Song, which presented choral festivals supporting anti-drunk driving education. Mrs. Dwyer is a frequent guest conductor with Texas International Choral Festival, MidAmerica Productions, the New England Symphonic Wind Ensemble and guest lecturer in São Paulo, Brazil where she conducts the GRAN FINALE Festival Nacional de Corais Infantis e Jovens.
Mrs. Dwyer has been a conductor and Director of Education with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir for 33 years. She recently added the title of Composer in Residence to her ICC honors. She is celebrating nearly 30 years as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir, a co-operative effort of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Indianapolis Children’s Choir. Her ensembles have performed for the Indiana Music Educators Association, the AOSA National Conference, in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, across North America and throughout Spain and Central Europe. She has prepared ensembles for performances with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Butler Ballet, the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Indianapolis Opera and numerous other organizations.
Mrs. Dwyer served the State of Indiana for 19 years as a public school music educator. Her teaching experiences include all levels of music instruction from 3 year olds to post graduate students. She has received the Organization of American Kodály Educator’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Golden Baton Award, the IMEA Elementary Music Teacher of the Year, the Hoosier Musician Award and the Indianapolis Public Schools’ Rising Star award. She is an accomplished choral composer, arranger and the editor of the Ruth Dwyer Choral Series with Colla Voce Music, LLC distributed by Canticle Distributing Company.
Mrs. Dwyer has authored and published three curriculum books for ICC and is a frequent guest author for the Hal Leonard choral textbooks series. She also teaches at Butler University and works as a studio conductor for a variety of national and international music publishers.
Ruth E. Dwyer is a graduate of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She enjoys traveling, reading, crocheting and gardening.