The Mercer County Senior High Honors Band and Chorus Festival will conclude with a concert at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium of West Middlesex Area High School.

Hundreds of Mercer County-area high school students from Commodore Perry, Farrell, Greenville, Grove City, Hickory, Jamestown, Kennedy Catholic, Lakeview, Mercer, Reynolds, Sharon, Sharpsville and West Middlesex will perform.

The 155 choral singers are rehearsing today, while the 135 band musicians practice Friday.

The festival, made up of musicians recommended by their high school directors, is designed to reward the students for their hard work and dedication.

Dr. Paul Laprade, director of choir at Slippery Rock University, will lead the singers through works such as "Marching to Zion" by John Ferguson, "Lonesome Valley" by Gilbert Martin and "Praise His Holy Name" by Keith Hampton.

Carla Osborne will accompany the choir. She is accompanist for the Slippery Rock University Choir.

James Berry, Slippery Rock's director of bands, will prepare pieces such as "Cenotaph" by Jack Stamp, "Shenandoah" by Frank Richeli and a medley of '60s hits by bands of the British Invasion, arranged by Johnnie Vinson.

The groups will combine for John Moss's "God Bless America."

Admission is free, but a free-will offering will be accepted.

The host directors of West Middlesex are band director Donald G. White and choir director Karen Campman Emmett.