Rock Band 'Foreigner' Wants Clark Montessori Choir to Back-Up Cincinnati Concert: Kids Get Called to Perform On Group's Biggest Hit

F Stands or Foreigner, Not Flunking 

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The show is Saturday night at the Taft downtown.  British-American Foreigner has sold about 70 million albums since it started making music in 1976.  And the band's hits are legion -- Juke Box Hero, Head Games, Dirty White Boy and Feels Like the First Time are among
a handful of its tunes that have become classic rock standards.  The biggest hit of all -- and the only Foreigner single to reach No. 1 -- is I Want to Know What Love Is, a gospel flavored anthem that's been covered by everyone from Wynona Judd to Mariah Carey and even The Chipmunks.  Now Clark Montessori's 18-member high school choir gets to sing along with the band that made it.  Definitely another high note for the East Side campus.

Caitie Linger, a music teacher at the Cincinnati public school, said representatives of the rock band called quite out of the blue recently to inquire if the choir would perform backup onstage at the Feb. 25 show in Cincinnati.  Recalls  Linger, who directs the choir:  "This was completely unexpected.  We have no connections with them.  They said they learned about us from the Internet.  They Googled us."  Clark is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood and has about 650 students in grades 7-12.  It is also the nation's first public Montessori High School.  Two years ago, President Obama selected the school as a finalist in his race to the top and sent Education Secretary Arne Duncan to speak at the 2010 graduation ceremonies.  There are big footprints on Google.

Sheet Music for Big Hit

While Foreigner has faded a bit over the years -- the shows no longer fill mega-arenas and many original members are on the sidelines -- the kids are still pumped.  And they've been learning about music from the classic rock era.  The choir members are going to sell Foreigner CD's inside the Taft before they take the stage -- the band said all money raised by the CD sales will go to charity.  That kind of public service ties in with Montessori schooling.  And the choir won't come dressed in a glam rock look, it will be in t-shirts and black pants.  Foreigner said there could not be any "grunge" onstage.  Clark backs up the big finale, and yes, the kids have become fans.

Originally in the 1980s, I Want to Know What Love Is was backed up by the New Jersey Mass Choir.  So Clark is filling some pretty big robes on the Saturday night gig.  If you want to learn about Foreigner, you can read about the band's history by clicking here on Wikipedia.  Foreigner's official website is here.  And if you can't quite remember the tune and words to I Want to Know What Love Is, then watch the two-minute youTube clip below from the BBC's Last Choir Standing (it's not Foreigner but a British gospel choir called Revelation):