PRESCOTT – People will have the opportunity to attend a World Music Concert in Prescott’s Performing Arts Center featuring artists from around the world, thanks to a grant.

Prescott High School choir teacher Brittany Kamrath applied for a St. Croix Valley Music Education grant in October 2021. She learned of this grant and was encouraged to apply by her former teacher, Dr. Kris Tjornehoj, a music professor at UW-River Falls.

According to a news release from the St. Croix Valley Foundation, these grants are awarded each December from the Music Education Valley Impact Fund. A donor established the fund in order to give the gift of music to students of all ages in perpetuity.

The grant is being used to bring world musicians into the school to work with high school choir students, which is how the world music concert came to life.

Kamrath reached out to another former teacher, Dr. Pat O’Keefe, a music professor at UW-RF, to formulate a vision to share and collaborate with professional musicians on a world music concert.

The musicians are a group known as Maithree – The Music of Friendship. The members of the group are Nirmala Rajasekar, Pat O’Keefe, Tim O'Keefe and Michelle Kinney. The group formed when Rajasekar, who is one of the world’s premier veena performers in the world today, invited friends to play music together. Pat O’Keefe plays clarinet, Tim O’Keefe is a world percussionist and Kinney is a cellist. Maithree presents authentic music along with new settings of Indian, Irish, and Turkish tunes. The group wants their music to bring others together, like it did for them.

The Prescott High School choir will be performing Shruthi’s composition, “The Change We Need,” which consists of the text “The youth will be the change we need now.” This piece was composed in 2020 in celebration of our youth. The piece of music moves through bitonality, which is symbolic of parts of our lives pulling us in different directions. The piece ends together and at peace as an acknowledgement of coexistence.

Shruthi is an Indian-American composer and vocalist who performs regularly in the US, Europe and India. Shruthi has studied carnatic and vocal music for over 18 years around the world at Princeton, SOAS University of London, The Royal Northern College of Music, but her first teacher was her mother, Rajasekar. Shruthi was named by The Guardian UK as a composer 'who will enrich your life,' and she is doing exactly that for PHS choir students. This non-traditional piece uses only nine words in the text, but is sung in nine separate choral parts.

“Typically, high school choirs sing in four to six parts,” Kamrath said. “This piece is incredibly complex with chords and sounds that we are not accustomed to in traditional Western choral music. There is a trio singing in a different time signature than the full choir, which is especially difficult to accomplish.”

However, despite the challenge, the song has a message that is worth hearing.

“I always want music that encourages our kids to learn and grow,” Kamrath adds with a laugh, “and everyone is learning from this piece.”

During the concert, Maithree will be performing their own set of music, and Shruthi will be soloing with the choir on “Devotee.” Shruthi will come to choir classes prior to the concert to work with the students.

“Choir isn't just about singing, it is about learning how to appreciate music and develop the ability to discuss what you are experiencing using musical terminology,” Kamrath said. “It is about learning who you are and how to find connections to others through music. Musicians and pieces of music like these challenge our students to be more worldly and educated.”

The World Music Concert is at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21 at Prescott High School (1010 Dexter St.) and is free and open to the public.