Submitted photo A group of music students from Austintown schools performs as a choir with the rock band Apocalyptic Lovers in West Middlesex, Pa., Austintown Middle School teacher Megan Keown organized the choir, which includes students from grades six through 10.

A group of Austintown vocal music students will go from singing with a rock band to singing with professional opera singers in the span of a month.

The students in grades six to 10 traveled to Mindrocket Recording Studio in West Middlesex, Pa., on Oct. 21 to record two songs with the hard rock band Apocalyptic Lovers for its next album, tentatively titled “And the World Tomorrow.”

On Nov. 17 the choir will be part of Opera Western Reserve’s production of Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.”

In a way, the opera gig made the rock recording session possible, according to Megan Keown, who teaches at Austintown Middle School. She was asked by SMARTS, a Youngstown-based community arts school, to put together a children’s choir for the OWR production.

Over the summer, Apocalyptic Lovers drummer Dave Hope came up with the idea of a choir for one of the band’s songs.

“I wrote ‘Coming Home’ a couple years ago,” Hope said. “I sent the lyrics to Sean (Magee, lead guitar player and vocals), and I was blown away with how good it came out. The more I listened to it, I thought this song needs that eerie children’s choir Pink Floyd thing. Others, like Pretty Reckless, have done the same thing. I’ve been calling it the icing on the cake. I told the guys in the band, and they all thought I was goofy.

“Rob (Kane, lead singer) brought up we could do it with special effects. I heard samples and they all sounded like the Chipmunks to me. No, I have to have the real thing.”

The rest of the band includes Mike Nagy, bass and vocals, and Eric Blinzley, guitar.

Hope reached out to Liberty Local Schools Director of Bands Michael Summers, who Hope knew from working in the district last year, and he suggested posting something to social media and tagging Summers in it so his music education colleagues might see it.

Keown did and reached out to him.

“I grew up in the ’80s and used to listen to ’80s hair metal bands,” Keown said. “It’s my guilty pleasure, one of those things I had to keep secret as a music student … Dave put this out, and I already had this choir together for the ‘Carmen’ project.”

Keown invited Hope to come meet with the students and play them the demo of “Coming Home.” Hope admitted he was nervous, assuming the kids would be thinking, “Who is this weird old guy and why does he want us to sing on his band’s record.”

“They were sweet, totally awesome,” Hope said, and he and Keown could hear the students singing the song in the hallway after class was over. “Megan said, ‘I don’t know what a hit is, but that song really resonates with them.’ That got me all giddy.”

The student choir features Olivia Anderson, Leah Berg, Joshua Cene, Ciara Dabney, Sophia Duva, Gracie Faunda, Angela Gerhold, Hannah Harnutovsky, Emily Hentzel, Arion James, Braelyn Jensen-Kaglic, Dakota Kasner, Emilee Knisley, Emily Ligouri, Aubrey O’Connor, Aidyn Patterson, Ziva Samora, Alaya Sellers, Giovanni Testa, Emma Thorpe, Charlotte Ward, Avahree Zura and Harper Zura.

They arrived at the recording studio on a school bus in their dress black clothes, and the band members shot some footage of the recording session that they hope to use for the music video.

The choir recorded parts for “Coming Home” and a second song, “Can We Stand.”

“I could sense a little bit of skepticism from the other band members,” Keown said. “It took a couple of takes to warm up to it, and in the end they asked us to sing a little more and do a different part (on ‘Can We Stand’) that I got to help arrange. I knew they were more into it when they started asking us to stay longer and do more.”

Hope said, “The kids did great. It was one of those jaws-hit-the-floor, hair-stands-up-on-your-arms moments. It was awesome to see the light bulbs going off over their heads and the inspiration happening … Two of the 10th graders came up and thanked me and said it was a lifelong dream recording in a studio with a rock band.”

It also was a valuable educational experience, letting the students see how to work and how to behave in a recording studio, Keown said. They also watched her put music theory teachings into practice when they created vocal arrangements while in the studio.

“This project and the ‘Carmen’ project really revived me and helped me tap into my creativity,” Keown said.

agray@tribtoday.com