NIU’s Chamber Choir will be one of eight choirs performing at this year’s National Association for Music Education (MENC) convention Saturday.

The 61st biennial convention, in Milwaukee, will include educational workshops and keynote speakers catering to the music education field.

The Chamber Choir’s director, Eric Johnson, described MENC as the national umbrella organization for music educators.

“The audience is all choral directors and music teachers,” Johnson said, explaining that the choir will have their work cut out for them when they take the stage. The spectators will understand the work, discipline and technique that goes into the performance.

“It adds another level of energy. It’s an empowering thing and an intimidating thing,” Johnson said. “If we make mistakes, they’ll know.”

At the same time, however, he does not anticipate they’ll be overly critical.

“It’s not like they’ll be sitting there with scorecards,” he added with a smile.

Johnson has taken the vocalists to the 2006 National Collegiate Choral Organization conference as well as several state events, which he expects have well-prepared the students for the conference Saturday.

Building up to the MENC performance, the Chamber Choir performed in Madison on Tuesday night and will sing in Mequon, Wisc., on Thursday. Tonight, the vocalists will trade performances with the Lawrence University Concert Choir of Appleton, Wisc.

These pre-conference performances will give the choir an opportunity to get into a rhythm before Saturday’s showcase, as well as let the vocalists hone their skills among other college choir members.

The NIU Chamber Choir is made up of music majors, some of whom aspire to be music educators and others to be performance artists.