This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A new contest is going to give high school choirs in six Utah counties a chance at scholarship money and a chance to sing with Kurt Bestor this Christmas season.
Bestor has joined forces with the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies to set up the contest. The first- through fifth-place winners each will receive a $500 scholarship for their schools' choir departments — and be chosen to sing, either onstage or in the lobby of Abravanel Hall — during Bestor's annual Christmas show, Dec. 19-21.
High school music and choir departments in the six counties — Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, Summit and Wasatch — can submit a musical selection from their upcoming holiday concert on Bestor's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/kbestor). There, classmates can vote for their favorites, and the 10 performances with the most "likes" will go into a final round. The top five of those 10 will be picked by Bestor and guest musicians.
The winning choir will perform onstage with Bestor and his guest artists for the closing piece of Bestor's Dec. 19 concert — and Bestor will come to the winning school for some hands-on instruction.
The choirs that come in second through fifth each will perform in the lobby before one of the four Abravanel Hall shows.
The deadline for posting video entries is Nov. 8. Online voting runs Nov. 11-22. Winners will be announced on Bestor's Facebook page on Dec. 5 at 10 a.m., and the choirs will receive their scholarship checks at the Larry H. Miller Christmas Carole Sing-Along at EnergySolutions Arena on Dec. 16. (The winning choirs also are invited to sing in EnergySolutions Arena lobby that night.)