Choirs
Welcome to Olathe Northwest Choirs
Booster Club
Choral Department Needs You to Join Booster Club
Who: Parents and guardians of all ONW choir students. We require an annual fee for dues to support our program.
When: We will have six meetings during the school year. Meetings are not mandatory. Each meeting will be one hour in length. We will meet in the ONW Choir Room or via Zoom from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on the following dates.
- Monday, Aug. 18 (required annual fees will be collected at this meeting)
- Monday, Sept. 29
- Monday, Oct. 27
- Monday, Jan. 26, 2026
- Monday, March 30, 2026
- Monday, April 27, 2026
Why: To support the students in choirs at ONW. Some specific areas of focus include:
- Fundraising
- Chaperoning choir events
- Banquet planning
- Student / Choral Department publicity and recognition
- Slideshow for end-of-the-year banquet
- Senior Scrapbook
- Concert receptions
- Raven Pops concert assistance
What is the money collected, raised, and used for?
- Raven Pops expenses (musicians, lighting, sound, choreography, etc.)
- Music purchases for choirs, solos, pop music
- Senior gifts and Cale Miller Honorarium matching donation
- Food / refreshments for special events and other items deemed necessary
- Teambuilding
Questions? Please Ask!
- email Pam Williamson, ONW choral director, or call 913-780-7150
- email Kim Fedt, ONW Choir Booster Club president, or call 913-220-3345
How to join the Choir Booster Club:
There are three ways to pay your fees.
- Pay via PayPal
- Write a check payable to ONW Choir Booster Club and send to school with your student or mail to Olathe Northwest High School, Attn: Pam Williamson. 21300 College Blvd., Olathe KS 66061
- Pay with Venmo @Kim-Fedt
Membership Levels of Support:
- $50 — Allegro
- $75 — Vivace
- $100 — Presto!
Thank you for your support of music education and the ONW Choirs!
Cale Miller Honorarium
An honorarium of $1,000 will be awarded to two ONW choir seniors in honor and memory of Cale Miller. Cale was an ONW graduate in the class of 2007, and served his country as a Pvt. First Class in the U.S. Army. He gave his life for our freedom in 2012 in Afghanistan. Cale’s parents have established an honorarium in his name. Choir director Pam Williamson was the proud aunt of Cale.
The intended use of the honorarium is to help defray costs associated with collegiate-level musical pursuits. Uses of the honorarium may include, but are not limited to the following:
Seniors applying for the honorarium must complete an application form and submit it to the choral music director by April 15 of the respective year. All applications will be reviewed by a selection committee. The $1,000 checks will be awarded at the ONW choir banquet in April.
The recipient will be chosen based on:
- Singing in a collegiate choir
- Majoring in music in college
- Minoring in music in college
- Purchasing music materials for a college course
- Tuition costs for enrolling in a music class in college
- Completed application received by the deadline.
- Documentation of choir involvement at ONW.
- Declaration of intent to use funds toward a musical post-high school endeavor.
- Essay portion of the application.
ONW Choir Calendar 2025-26
Semester 1
Semester 1
NOTE: For the ONW home football games, all choir students are invited and encouraged to sing the National Anthem and Alma Mater at the pre-game. Arrive at 6:30 p.m. at College Boulevard Activity Center. (There is one game at Olathe District Activity Center.) Wear a choir T-shirt or hoodie to be admitted for free. Letter points are awarded. There are four home games currently on the calendar.
Dates in bold are required for all choir students. Performances are part of the student's grade.
- Monday, Aug. 18 — ONW Choir Booster Club meeting, 6:30 p.m. in the choir room; all parents welcome.
- Tuesday, Aug. 26 — Timber Ridge Adventure Center; participants to be determined.
- Saturday, Aug. 30 — Booster Club fundraiser — HyVee Baggin' for Tips, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. We will need students and some parents to sign up for a three-hour shift at HyVee at 119th Street and Ridgeview.
- Tuesday, Sept. 9 — Booster Club fundraiser at Junque Drawer; more details to come.
- Tuesday, Sept. 9 — ONW Tenor Bass Day, 9-11 a.m.
- Friday, Sept. 12 — ONW Treble Day, 1-2:15 p.m.
- Wednesday-Thursday, Sept. 10-11 — Auditions for the school musical "Mean Girls."
- Friday, Sept. 12 — ONW Treble Day, 9-11 a.m.
- Friday, Sept. 12 — Callbacks for the school musical "Mean Girls."
- Thursday, Sept. 18 — ONW home football game, Middle School Night Tailgate, 5:45-6:30 p.m. at CBAC.
- Friday, Sept. 26 — ONW homecoming football game, 6:30 p.m. arrival at CBAC.
- Monday, Sept. 29 — ONW Choir Booster Club meeting, 6:30 pm. in the choir room; all parents welcome
- Sunday, Oct. 5 — "Cantate" Chamber Choir Clinic at UMKC Conservatory of Music, 2-5 p.m.; Da Capo only.
- Thursday, Oct. 9 — ONW Fall Choral Concert, 7:00 p.m., auditorium (all choirs).
- Friday, Oct. 10 — ONW home football game, 6:30 p.m. arrival at CBAC.
- Friday, Oct. 17 — ONW home football game, 6:30 p.m. arrival at ODAC (note location).
- Monday, Oct. 27 — ONW Choir Booster Club meeting, 6:30 p.m. in the choir room; all parents welcome.
- Saturday, Nov. 8- ECKMEA District Auditions at Shawnee Mission North High School.
- Wednesday-Saturday, Nov. 12-15 — ONW musical “Mean Girls” performances at 7:00 p.m. every night and a 2:00 p.m. Saturday matinee.
- Wednesday, Nov. 19 — Olathe Middle Level Honor Choir Concert at 7:00 p.m. at Northwest; Da Capo only.
- Saturday, Dec. 6 — ECKMEA District Festival at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.
- Tuesday, Dec. 9 — ONW Winter Choral Concert at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium; all choirs.
- Thursday, Dec. 11 — Summit Trail Middle School's Elementary Festival from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Summit Trail; Da Capo Singers
- Saturday, Dec. 13 — KCC Youth Concert at 1:00 p.m. at St. Michael the Archangel; Da Capo Singers (Call time is 11:00 a.m.)
Semester 2
Semester 2
Dates in bold are required for all choir students. Performances are part of the student's grade.
- Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026 — Prairie Trail Middle School's Elementary Festival from 9:00-11:00 a.m. at Prairie Trail; Da Capo Singers.
- Monday, Jan. 26, 2026 — ONW Choir Booster Club meeting, 6:30 p.m. in the choir room; all parents welcome.
- Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026 — Harmony Explosion at Grace United Methodist Church (Barbershop Quartet Contest)
- Thursday, Feb. 26-Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026 — KMEA State Choir Convention in Wichita.
- Thursday, March 12, 2026 — Freshman Vocal Solo Festival, 4:00-8:00 p.m. at Olathe West High School.
- Tuesday, March 24, 2026 — Olathe District Choral Festival, 8:30-11:30 a.m. at Olathe East High School (Choirs TBD)
- Monday, March 30, 2026 — ONW Choir Booster Club meeting, 6:30 p.m. in the choir room; all parents welcome.
- Saturday, April 11, 2026 — Regional Solo and Ensemble Festival at Olathe South High School, times TBD. Please reserve the day until we know our specific performance times. All choirs with 24 voices or fewer, smaller ensembles and select soloists will be performing at this event.
- Thursday, April 16, 2026 — State Large Group Contest; all choirs will participate; schedule TBD. We will take buses to Olathe North High School.
- Saturday, April 25, 2026 — State Solo and Ensemble Festival at Topeka Washburn Rural High School; schedule TBD. (Students who earned Superior I ratings at the Regional Solo/Ensemble should plan to go to this event.)
- Monday, April 27, 2026 — ONW Choir Booster Club meeting, 6:30 p.m. in the choir room; all parents welcome.
- Thursday, May 7, 2026 — Raven Pops Dress Rehearsal and Choir Awards Night, 3:15-9:00 p.m. (Rehearsal from 3:15-6:45 p.m. is required for all students in choir. Awards begin at 6:30 p.m.)
- Saturday, May 9, 2026 —Raven Pops Concert, 7 p.m. in the auditorium; all choirs.
Choir Staff
Pamela Williamson
Choral Music Director
Pamela Williamson is the Choral Music Director at Olathe Northwest High School. Pam has been a public school music educator in Kansas since 1992. She has been the Choral Director and Performing Arts Department Chair since 2006 at Olathe Northwest.
The choral program consists of six choirs. The ONW Da Capo Singers were selected by audition to perform at the 2011 KMEA Statewide In-service Workshop. Students in Pam’s choirs have performed with Kansas District and Statewide Honor Choirs, SWACDA Honor Choirs, State and National ACDA Honor Choirs, with the Kansas City Chorale, and the Kansas City Symphony. The choirs have consistently earned superior ratings at Regional and State music festivals and contests during Pam’s tenure. They earned the top award at Festival Disney as “Best in Show” in 2010 and First Place in their division at this event in Orlando, Florida. The choirs earned Superior Musical Performance and Outstanding Class awards at the Alamo Showcase of Music Festival in San Antonio, Texas in 2013.
Pam is on the music staff at Grace United Methodist Church in Olathe, Kansas. She has earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from the UMKC Conservatory of Music. Pam is in her twenty-ninth season of singing with the Grammy award-winning Kansas City Chorale, and is a featured soloist on several of their recordings. Pam sang in the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in performances at Carnegie Hall, and has been an active music director and accompanist for many community musical theater events in the Kansas City area.
Pam was named the Outstanding High School Music Educator in 2011-2012 by the Kansas Music Educators Association. She served as the State Choral Chair for KMEA from 2015-2017. Pam was a semi-finalist for Kansas Teacher of the Year in the Olathe School District in 2014-15. Pam enjoys spending time with husband Brett, and their three sons.
Amy Cramer
Accompanist
Paula Brekken
Vocal Assistant
Paula Brekken joined the choral department at ONW in 2014. Upon completion of a music education degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, she taught for seven years in the Missouri and Kansas public schools at the middle and high school levels. She is the recipient of the very first Prelude Award given to exceptional music teachers from the Missouri Choral Directors Association, and the Outstanding First Year Teacher Award, given by the Missouri Teachers Association. Currently, Paula is director of music at Crossroads Church in Overland Park and has been a member of the Grammy award-winning Kansas City Chorale since 2001. In January 2007, Paula had the opportunity to participate in the professional choral workshop in New York through the Carnegie Hall Weill Institute, singing Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” with conductor Helmuth Rilling. She lives in Olathe with husband Mike and their three daughters, Sonia, Risa, and Becca.