Festival of Music: DAIS Students Shine at AMIS Honor Choir 2025

What is AMIS? AMIS is the Association for Music in International Schools, a non-profit organization that seeks to enhance performing ensembles in international schools. Part of this outreach is the AMIS Honor Choir Festival, AMIS Honor Orchestra Festival, and AMIS Honor Band Festival.

This year, DAIS/DHS Choirs made their AMIS Honor Choir debut in Singapore at the Singapore American School! Two of our tenor voices, David Q. and Louie L. (both in G11), were selected after passing a rigorous audition process from a pool of other applicants across all of Asia. Once selected David and Louie went to work learning a series of exciting repertoire to prepare for the Honor Festival, which included 30 other schools from around Asia. AMIS brought in Dr. Cameron Labarr, Director of Choral Studies from Missouri State University in the United States, to conduct the High School Honor Choir. In addition to working with Dr. Labarr, our students also spent time with other choral directors from the various other schools attending the festival through sectionals and voice tests. You can watch the performances of all three choirs (MS Treble Choir, MS Changing Voices, and HS Honor Choir) here.

In addition to high a performing experience, our students also got out for an evening exploring Gardens by the Bay, location of the super trees of Singapore. The night show happened to be featuring famous operas - fitting for our choral students to see and hear!

We are so proud of the accomplishments, growth, and representation of our two tenors.

David: "Being able to participate in AMIS and celebrated its 50th anniversary has been a dream come true. It's an absolute joy to be immersed in music from every corner of the globe, and experienced collaboration among ethnicities and cultures. I feel so lucky to be part of this mega festival, all thanks to the opportunities our school and teachers provided for us".

Louie: "I just noticed that it was the 50th anniversary of AMIS, the event with the most people in the choir. We participated in this event, seeking the meaning of the song and immersing ourselves in the beautiful music. We also cooperated with people from different countries and cultures, standing on the stage and singing together. We are grateful for the chance given by the school and teachers".

But we're not done! This year we were fortunate to have two other students recognized by AMIS:

Josh S. (G7) placed as an alternate in the MS Orchestra on double bass. Alternates are called upon to perform should another player resign from their seat in the festival. Such a huge accomplishment for this young player to be ranked so highly in his first audition!

And finally, Justin G. (G10) will be traveling this April to perform on the baritone saxophone with the AMIS HS Honor Band at Seoul Foreign School in Seoul, South Korea! This band will be conducted by Dr. Emily Threinen from the University of Minnesota.

There's so much to look forward to from the DAIS/DHS Performing Arts Department - stay tuned! ...and happy practice!

Ms. Ashley Mims
Ms. Terry Saez