Prior to this year, Mississippi had never had a middle school choir selected to perform at a Southern Division convention. Sa Beau Chant of Hernando Middle School will be Mississippi's first.

Sapphire, of Olive Branch High School, is the first high school women's choir of Mississippi to receive the honor of performing at the American Choral Director's Association (ACDA) Southern Division Convention.

Senatobia residents Joelle and Reese Norris will lead the OBHS and HMS concert choirs, respectively, at the American Choral Director's Association (ACDA) Southern Division Convention.

Hernando Middle School and Olive Branch High School's concert choirs will make history as they perform at the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Convention.

Olive Branch's Sapphire is the first high school women's choir of Mississippi to receive this honor and the most recent of three high schools from the state to perform at Southern Division. Sa Beau Chant of Hernando Middle School will be Mississippi's first middle school choir to perform for the convention. This will also mark the first time two Mississippi schools have been invited in the same year, where they will be among 15 choirs invited to perform.

"This is an even greater honor than when the Hernando Middle School choir was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in 2005," said Reese Norris.

The Southern Division of ACDA has 14,000 members in 11 states.

Across this region, 86 choirs auditioned to perform, but only 15 were selected. ACDA performance invitations are the result of a choirs' body of work over a three-year period.

Beating perhaps a greater set of odds, the choir directors of the two area high schools are married to each other. Joelle Norris, originally from New York, and Reese Norris of Senatobia met five years ago during their graduate studies at Florida State University.

On March 10 -13, ACDA will hold its Southern Division convention in Memphis for the first time in its 51-year history.