OBU, Arkadelphia elementary students to present Honor Choir concert today

ARKADELPHIA — Ouachita Baptist University will host the Honor Choir in concert today at 3 p.m. in McBeth Recital Hall, located in Mabee Fine Arts Center.

The Honor Choir features elementary students from the Arkadelphia public schools who have been preparing for the concert with the help of Ouachita music education majors.

This semester, Ouachita’s music education majors have worked with Arkadelphia elementary school students for both the benefit of the children and to gain handson experience teaching music. Ouachita students also will assist in directing the concert on Saturday. The concert will include spiritual songs, songs in Latin, a song cycle on animals and more.

“Every rehearsal, one (Ouachita) student does warm-ups and another student teaches a singing game at the end of rehearsal. It is a lab experience for them as they are learning how to teach elementary age students,” said Becky Morrison, assistant professor of music at Ouachita who oversees the choir. “They also help the choir by singing with them or keeping them on track with their music, etc.”

In preparation for the Honor Choir concert, Ouachita students have had the opportunity to be immersed in the children’s atmosphere.

“This has been a great example of hands-on learning for me as an education student because I have been able to work on how I interact with younger students,” said Emma Pitts, a junior music education major from Clarksville. “Elementary and middle school students are so different from interacting with high school students and my peers; it has been nice getting more comfortable with that age group.”

For Bailey Brown, a junior music education major from Colorado Springs, Colo., working with the children to bring to life all that the students have learned in the classroom is the most influential aspect of the Honor Choir.

“I love getting to watch how a children’s choir is really run,” Brown said. “There’s only so much that can be learned about that kind of stuff in a lecture setting, so it’s good to watch our professor implement and demonstrate all the things she’s been telling us and try it ourselves.”