Dr. Allen Clements, director of choral activities at Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, recently served as guest clinician for the senior high mixed choir at the 2005 Southwest All-Region Choir Festival.
More than 30 high schools from across the southwest portion of Arkansas were represented at the festival that was organized by the Arkansas Choral Directors Association and held at Lake Hamilton High School.
Clements, assistant professor of music at SAU, conducted approximately 160 high school students who had been selected out of several hundred who auditioned earlier this year.
The top 96 students from this group will compete with All-Region students from the other four regions in Arkansas for the honor of participating in the Arkansas All-State Choir this spring.
Clements worked with the senior high mixed choir to prepare five pieces of music. The pieces of music were “Jubilate Deo,” “Somewhere I have Never Traveled,” “Ave Maria,” “Give Me Jesus,” and “John the Revelator.”
These pieces were performed for an audience of about 1,000 people. The concert also featured performances by the Junior High All-Region Treble Choir, the Junior High All-Region Mixed Choir, and the Senior High All-Region Treble Choir.
Clements joined the faculty of the Department of Music at SAU in 2003. He serves as director of the Heritage Singers and Chamber Singers. He earned his B.M.E. from Harding University, M.M. from the University of Alabama, and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
