MVNU to host Central Ohio Honors Choir

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — Mount Vernon Nazarene University will host the 2025 District 10 Ohio Music Education Association Honors Choir Festival on Saturday, Nov. 1. The event will feature young vocalists from Ashland, Coshocton, Delaware, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Morrow and Richland Counties from 33 participating schools.

The event features high school and middle school honor choirs. To be eligible, students must be nominated by their director. The day will feature a morning of instruction and culminate with a concert at 3:30 p.m. in the R.R. Hodges Chapel/Auditorium on the MVNU campus. The concert is free and open to the public.

Amy Johnston Blosser will direct the high school choir. She is in her 23rd year as Choral Director at Bexley High School. She conducts four choirs, grades 8-12, has served as music director for high school musical productions, and is the Fine Arts Department Chair. Under Blosser’s direction, the Bexley High School Vocal Ensemble has performed on several state conferences, and her choirs have toured throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

She’s been recognized as Bexley Schools’ 2011 Educator of the Year and was selected as a conducting fellow for the 2015 International Conductors Exchange Program. Beyond her schoolwork, she serves as Artistic Director of the Bexley Choral Society and Associate Director of Music at First Community Church. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Barbara Lamont will direct the middle school choir. She is the director of choral activities at Southeast Missouri State University, where she conducts all choral ensembles, teaches choral music education and conducting, and works as a collaborative pianist.

She has served as an adjudicator, clinician, and honor choir conductor across multiple states, and has been a resource chair and pianist for the Missouri Choral Directors Association. A certified yoga instructor, she explores connections between yoga, movement, and choral singing.

Dr. Lamont holds a Bachelor of Music in vocal music education from Capital University (summa cum laude), a Master of Music in choral conducting from Michigan State University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting from Texas Tech University.

For more on the MVNU Music Department, visit mvnu.edu/music.