Detroit, MI (March 15, 2004) - Over 450 Detroit Public School students will participate in the 2004 Annual Wayne State University/Detroit Public Schools Choral Festival March 23-24, 2004 from 9:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Middle school and high school students will gather on Wayne State's campus to sing their hearts out as they have done for the past three decades at the annual WSU/DPS Choral Festival. The two-day festival will be held in the Schaver Music Recital Hall located in the Old Main Building, 480 W. Hancock and Cass Ave. Admission to the Choral Festival is free, however seating is limited.

The Annual Choral Festival will feature performances by four middle school and four high school choruses each day. Closing the morning and afternoon sessions will be short performances by the WSU Concert Chorale, Choral Union, and Men's Glee Club under the direction of Norah Duncan IV and Augustus O. Hill. Each school chorus will perform two selections for their peers and a panel of distinguished vocal music educators and conductors. This year's adjudicators will include Brazeal Dennard, founder of the Brazeal Dennard Chorale; WSU Faculty Abigail Butler, Norah Duncan IV, and Augustus O. Hill; and Kathleen Kane, Vocal Music Director for Roosevelt High School and Wilson Middle School in Wyandotte. The panelists will offer evaluations and encouragement for each group as they prepare for state competition."

For over 35 years, the Department of Music is most proud to host the annual Wayne State University/Detroit Public Schools Choral Festival" noted Prof. Dennis J. Tini, Chair of the WSU Department of Music. "We are most pleased to support and encourage these marvelous young students and their musical endeavors. We are happy to host over 28 schools annually as part of Wayne State's Detroit Public Schools initiative and we hope you will join us during one of these days and hear these talented middle school and high school musicians."

For more information on the festival please contact the Detroit Public Schools at (313) 873-7695 or the WSU Department of Music at (313) 577-1795.

Wayne State University Department of Music is celebrating 85 years of artistic and academic excellence. The Department's faculty includes renowned jazz artists, composers, scholars, educators and members of the internationally acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra. WSU alumni have gone on to careers in distinguished orchestras, ensembles and as soloists and music educators the world over. For more information on the Department of Music, call 313.577.1795 or visit the WSU Department of Music on the web.