The Missouri State Symphony Orchestra -Dr. Robert Quebbeman, conductor
The St. Louis Children’s Choir - Mrs. Kathleen Pottinger, conductor
The Oak Ridge Boys

The Music Educators National Conference (MENC) has produced this series of concerts now for
22 years. This year the Missouri State Symphony was invited to be the guest orchestra for the
nationwide telecast on PBS, which was broadcast to the country on March 9, 2006. The guest
choir this year was the St. Louis Children’s choir. Their conductor, Kathleen Pottinger, is a
graduate of Missouri State and was a conducting student of Robert Quebbeman. It was a real joy
 to share the podium with my former student.

Each year the music is prepared by the orchestra and chorus and then recorded. The musical
arrangements were scored by Jim Christenson, an arranger from Hollywood who writes for Walt
Disney, among others. Our recording and the actual sheet music were then made available to
schools around the country. These school children learned the identical music during the year.
A few groups from different states and towns were also filmed singing the music. Then, when
the concert was actually televised, thousands of students from around the country sang along
simultaneously, making it the “world’s largest concert.” All of the sound on the recording
comes from the groups on-stage, but the various other school children are shown singing along
on the tape to indicate what was happening around the country.

It was some great national exposure for our Missouri State Symphony, and they did an excellent
job. The MENC producers said this was one of the finest and easiest to produce concerts they
have done in the 22 years. It was also fun to meet “The Oaks.” We are very proud of theachievements of our orchestra and also the St. Louis Children’s Choir.