Rock stars for a night: Conemaugh Township Area high school choir to sing with Foreigner

DAVIDSVILLE ― Singing in front of thousands of people may be a lot different than singing to their parents and grandparents in the high school auditorium, but the Conemaugh Township Area School District’s high school choir is ready to give it their all.

The 25 choir members, made up of freshmen through seniors from the Davidsville high school, will step on stage Tuesday night to sing with the rock band Foreigner on its most popular single, “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

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Foreigner is bringing its Historic Farewell Tour, with special guest Cage Willis, to the 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial, 326 Napoleon St. in Johnstown. The arena doors open at 7 p.m. and the concert begins at 8 p.m.

Original band member and guitarist Mick Jones reformed the legendary rock band in 2004, adding new members Kelly Hansen on lead vocals, guitarists Jeff Pilson, Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado, Michael Bluestein on keyboards and Chris Frazier on drums.

A surprise invitation

The choir’s invitation to perform with Foreigner came in April, through an email from a local radio station to Mari Grace Lingenfelter, the high school’s choral director.

“It just said we were recommended to them, so it was a surprise,” she said.

After making sure the email was legitimate, Lingenfelter approached the district's administrators, who then got approval from the school board for the students to participate.

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'A super cool opportunity'

The choir performed its school spring concert May 3, and since then they have been practicing the chorus to Foreigner’s best-selling single, which was originally released in 1984.

“I think it’s a super cool opportunity, especially singing in front of thousands of people,” said Julia Thomas, a sophomore in the choir. “None of us have ever done that before, and it’s amazing to be able to do that in high school.”

Chris Yoder, a freshman, said he was expecting “a cool experience overall.”

“I’ve been in musicals, I’m in crowds ― hopefully I won’t get stage fright,” he said. “I think it’ll be a cool experience, because it’s not every day that you get to sing with a famous band, in front of thousands (of people).”

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Promoting music education in schools

Foreigner intends to donate $500 to the school’s music department, Lingenfelter said, and is also giving each of the choir members a free ticket to the concert.

“We were told by their publicity director, he said they like doing this, when they go to the different towns, to ask for high schools to sing because a lot of (the band’s) members went through their school music programs,” she said. “So they want to give back and give high school students that opportunity, since they can provide it for them.”

Tickets for the Foreigner concert can be purchased online through foreigneronline.com, the band’s website, or through the 1st Summit Arena website, 1stsummitarena.com.

Some of the students said they were familiar with “I Want to Know What Love Is” before this opportunity arose, as their parents, or even grandparents, have been fans of Foreigner since the 1970s.

Now they’ll be able to say that they performed with the internationally known rock group in a live concert.

“The song’s going to be around a long time, so maybe your kids will be singing it (some day), and you’ll be like, ‘Hey, I sang that,” Lingenfelter said with a laugh.

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This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Conemaugh Township Area high school choir to sing with Foreigner