Urbandale High School choir to present concert with Tower Choir

The Tower Choir, pictured during a performance last spring, will be joined by the Urbandale Singers for a Nov. 10 concert. (Photo by Todd Weddle/Northwest Missouri State University)

The Urbandale Singers of Urbandale High School in Iowa will join Northwest Missouri State University’s Tower Choir for a Nov. 10 concert as the University continues its Guest Choral Ensembles Concert Series

The concert, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts. Northwest's KNWT also will livestream the concert at https://youtu.be/KjPkJd13cVM.

The Urbandale Singers, under the direction of Ted Brimeyer, is a premier choir of students in grades 10 through 12 who gain membership through an audition comprised of solo singing, sight-reading and tonal memory exercises. They perform a variety of choral repertoire in multiple concerts throughout the school year, often sharing concerts with renowned collegiate choirs.

The choir’s success has garnered invitations to present solo programs for the 2016 North Central Division Conference in Sioux Falls, Iowa; the 2017 Iowa Choral Showcase in Pella, Iowa; the 2018 Dorian Vocal Festival at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa; and the 2019 National American Choral Directors Association Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, an appearance widely considered to be the pinnacle achievement for an American choir.

Brimeyer is director of choirs at Urbandale High School and is part of an active vocal music program that enrolls 300 students in six performing ensembles. In addition to the Urbandale Singers, he directs the Concert Choir, an entry-level treble ensemble. His professional training includes earning a Master of Music in choral conducting from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Music in vocal music education and German from Iowa State University.

The shared concert is part of the ongoing Northwest Guest Choral Ensembles Concert Series established by Tower Choir Conductor and Professor of Music Dr. Stephen Town in 2004.

Formed decades ago by Ralph E. Hartzell, the Tower Choir is an award-winning choral ensemble, consistently invited to state conferences, including the Missouri Music Educators Association (MMEA) in 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2020 and the Nebraska Music Educators Association (NMEA) in 2011, 2014 and 2017, as well as by the National Collegiate Choral Organization in 2011.

Since the 1999-2000 academic year, under the direction of Town, the ensemble has performed more than 150 concerts for high schools, colleges, universities, churches, institutions and organizations in the states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas as well as Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C. In addition, the ensemble has given 15 peer-reviewed or invited concerts for learned societies, regional and state conventions, meetings, and symposia.