Forty Oakville High School choir students recently received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Their trip spanned April 9-12, during which they sang on the stage that has hosted prolific speakers, performers and orchestras since 1891. Students were accompanied by their choir directors, Chelsea Ayres and Emily Smith, who also performed alongside the students.

“My goal as a teacher is creating adventure and opportunity,” Ayres said. “My job is to create opportunities that are bigger than what they know of or have done.”

Oakville’s choir was invited to be a part of this concert — featuring 200 singers from all over the world — by Cameron LaBarr, the director of choral studies at Missouri State University. Ayres has known Cameron for approximately 20 years, during which time they have performed at similar events. Impressed after seeing Oakville’s choir perform last year at the Missouri Music Educators Association, Cameron extended the invitation to Ayres in July when he found out he’d been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall.

“It felt like a Missouri opportunity — a collaborative, across-the-state opportunity,” Ayres said. “This was a personal invitation, and so that meant a lot to me.”

The OHS choir received its music for the concert in September, giving the group seven months to rehearse. They practiced with voice tracks at rehearsals during the school day, trying to get their performance to sound as similar to the track as possible.

“The expectation was that you come, we learn it together, and then you practice it throughout the week on your own,” Smith said. “Then you come back, and we fix whatever needs to be fixed.”

The performance was a combination of music from both the United States and South Africa, written by two composers. The American composer was Susan LaBarr — Cameron LaBarr’s wife — and the South African composer was Michael Barrett. The choir performed four compositions by each of them, for a total of eight songs.

Ayres said that one of the group’s favorite songs in the concert was written about the connection between Cameron and Barrett. The song features a cardinal bird from Missouri and a roller bird from South Africa, flying on their own, but becoming even more beautiful when they fly together. Other songs by Barrett discussed peace and his own experiences with South African apartheid.

“The tenors and basses’ voices were singing in a South African language, and the sopranos and altos were singing in Latin,” Ayres said. “It was a melding of the two cultures.”

After months of rehearsals, the Oakville choir boarded a flight to New York City. The students had the chance to visit tourist locations in the city for the first couple of days, paired with rehearsals that lasted a combined total of seven hours.

When it came time to perform, the choir directors said that the students were in awe at the chance to sing at Carnegie Hall. Smith said that one student near her kept repeating to herself, “We’re actually at Carnegie Hall right now!”

Alongside Oakville, the concert featured students from across Missouri, the United States and even from other parts of the globe. Susan and Barrett, the composers, were present at the performance, which Ayres and Smith said was special for the students.

“You spent time with the composers directly, and they got to share with you their intentions of the music and the meaning behind it,” Ayres said. “That just made it a lot more powerful and personal.”

Smith added, “When we were preparing, it was hard to feel super connected to some of the South African songs, because we aren’t from South Africa. But once we were with the composer, and they had a drummer from South Africa who flew in just for this concert — it put it all into perspective of, ‘This is someone’s culture. This is someone’s life, and we get to share that.’ It touched a lot of our students. It was cool to see the composer’s music come to life in that way.”