KEARSTIN CANTRELL | Opinions Editor
After entering a competition to sing the national anthem for the St. Louis Blues, Lindenwood alumnus Montel Moore was one of few people chosen for the position.
The Blues and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra set out to find one new performer to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games. However, after reviewing the contestants, they brought in nine new talents.
In the first round of the competition, contestants submitted videos hoping to be brought in for live auditions. Of the more than 650 soloists, duos, trios, quartets and other performers, a mere 34 acts were brought in for live auditions.
The 34 performed at Powell Symphony Hall in front of a panel of judges consisting of Charles Glenn, current national anthem go-to for the Blues; Daniel Lee, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra principal cello; and Amy Kaiser, St. Louis Symphony chorus director.
The first round of live auditions were blind auditions in which the performers stood behind a black curtain while performing their song of choice.
Fourteen then moved on to the second round in which each contestant sang no more than 90 seconds of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Picking only one performer proved to be more difficult than expected for the judges.
“I thought it would be a simple process, but it was not,” Glenn said in an article with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It was very difficult to choose one singer.”
One singer Glenn did choose was Moore. In an interview with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Moore expressed his readiness to start singing the national anthem for the Blues.
“If I could make one person smile just by singing, it would mean a lot to me,” Moore said.
