BROOKINGS – South Dakota’s music educators will meet for performances, workshops and discussions for the South Dakota In-Service Music Conference Feb. 9-11. The conference, hosted by South Dakota State University, is expected to attract nearly 250 music teachers while 1,000 students of all ages will perform.

Evening concerts held Feb. 9 and 10 are free and open to the public at the Performing Arts Center on the SDSU campus. Concerts will be at 4:45 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10.

The 49th annual Choral Day, scheduled for Feb. 9, features a 4:45 p.m. performance by the Elementary Festival Honor Choir and a 7:30 p.m. concert by the Festival of Women’s Voices.

The Elementary Festival Honor Choir is under the direction of Maribeth Yoder-White, a choral and music education professor with the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. She also conducts research on music education, being published at the state, national and international levels.

The Festival of Women’s Voices is under the direction of Carol Krueger, a choral studies professor at Valdosta State University. She has conducted choirs in Kansas, Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama. The author of “Progressive Sight Singing,” Krueger will also teach a sight reading session.

The Brookings, Canton and Sioux Falls Washington high school concert choirs and the SDSU Women’s Choir will perform during Choral Day.

Conductor and composer Travis Cross headlines for the 81st annual South Dakota Bandmasters Association annual meeting. A graduate from St. Olaf, he is an associate professor and a department vice chair at UCLA, where he conducts the UCLA Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band. More than 20 of his compositions and arrangements have been published.

Charles Lazarus, a critically acclaimed trumpeter, will serve as the conference’s artist-in-residence. He will perform with the SDSU Symphonic band at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10. After making his Carnegie Hall debut as a 19-year-old, Lazarus performed with the New York String Orchestra while studying at The Julliard School. He has taught classes in all 50 U.S. states, in Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. He currently is a member of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Other bands set to perform are the Arlington Middle School Band, the Augustana Band, the Brookings High School Jazz Ensemble, the Canton High School Band, the Huron High School Band and the Northern State University Band.

For more information on the conference and performances, visit the SDSU music department’s website at www.sdstate.edu/music, or call 688-5188.