Lemoore High's choir shares the stage with Rock and Roll's legendary Foreigner

Friday, March 10, 2017 - 12:26pm By Ed Martin, Editor

Lemoore High School’s vaunted choral program, for a few magical musical minutes, shared a stage with one of the most familiar bands in rock and roll history. Eighteen fresh-faced singers, allowed to skip their homework for a night, joined the popular band Foreigner on Visalia’s Fox Theater Thursday night (March 9) for a sellout performance of one of the band’s biggest hits, “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

The band is in the midst of its 40th Anniversary Tour, and the latest stop was Visalia where it had a date with the Lemoore High School Choir. The talented Tiger singers earned their spot on the Fox Theater stage via a contest held by local Classic Rock station, 99.7, and over the course of a few weeks, won an online vote to perform with the group.

The LHS Choir also put together its own video, orchestrated to Foreigner’s classic tune, “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

Lemoore’s video, on YouTube, garnered some 44 percent of the total vote to win the date with Foreigner and its bandmates Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen, Jeff Pilson, Tom Gimbel, Mike Bluestein, Bruce Watson and Chris Frazier.

The band is, since its origins in 1976, has sold over 80 million records, including 37.5 million in the United states.

The LHS choir will received $1,000, which the choir’s director, Dorie Talob, says she plans to apply to a future performance opportunity.

Photographer Bill Burris was in the heart of Foreigner’s performance. “Their manager escorted me all the way down to the stage for the shoot,” said Burris. “He was very supportive. My chest was only six inches away from the speaker. My heart had extra beats.”

Burris said the choir was obviously excited to be there. “They were all fired up,” he said, “and they performed well.”