(Photo by August Jennewein)
Nearly 400 area middle school students will take part in this year’s Des Lee Middle School Music Festival on the University of Missouri–St. Louis campus.
The annual event features a day of clinics and rehearsals with UMSL music faculty members and culminates with a performance that night. The concert performed by seventh and eighth-grade students will begin at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Anheuser-Busch Hall at UMSL’s Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. The evening performance is free and open to the public.
Raynard Brown from Parkway North East Middle School in Creve Coeur, Mo., Michelle Howard from the Lindbergh Schools in St. Louis and Larry Johnson, president of the Metro Music Educators Association, will serve as guest conductors.
Missouri school districts represented during the concert will include St. Louis, the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Ferguson-Florissant, Hazelwood, Jennings, Lindbergh, Normandy, Orchard Farm, Ritenour, University City, Warrenton and Wright City.
The Touhill is on UMSL’s North Campus, 1 University Blvd. in St. Louis. The concert is sponsored by the Department of Music at UMSL and the Des Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative. Visit desleefinearts.org or call 314-516-5980 for more information.
