KITCHENER —What happens when a group of singing and dancing youth is told they will perform pop music on the biggest stage in Waterloo Region, with six costume changes, backed by the 52-piece Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony?

"They're very excited," said Amanda Kind, artistic director of KW Glee, a show choir that will be breaking new ground Jan. 19 and 20 when they perform with the symphony in the first such collaboration of its kind in North America.

"There's lots of opportunities for kids to sing with symphonies but it's always classical," said Kind. "We wanted to perform with them for a long time and we've been trying to float an idea."

Only five years old, the powerful, 108-voice KW Glee has earned the respect and attention of organizations like the symphony but the logistics of putting on such a concert was challenging. To start with, pop music is not scored for orchestras.

That job fell to the concert's conductor Trevor Wagler, director of Renaissance School of the Arts where KW Glee is based. A musician, composer and arranger, Wagler teaches in Wilfrid Laurier University's faculty of music and took on the job of scoring all the music because, well, "it's ridiculously fun" he said.

Starting in August, Wagler began the process of listening to each of the 20 songs featured in the concert, writing down each note until he had a completed piece of music. Next was the tricky part of writing lines for each instrument in the symphony, all 14 of them plus percussion, electric and acoustic guitar, electric bass, piano and other parts.

"Since the strings generally play the same notes as each other unless divided, I'd be writing for as many as 31 unique parts," said Wagler.

Some pieces "translated nicely" songs like Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" which uses a string ensemble. Adele's James Bond theme, "Skyfall" was written for full orchestra but the music is not available commercially so he still had to score the whole thing. "Skyfall" will be played as part of a medley of Bond tunes.

"I still have to be listening: What is the oboe doing, what are the strings doing?" he said.

Beyoncé's "End of Time" proved even more difficult.

"The Beyoncé, it's all dance techno music," Wagler said. "To do that with live players is very challenging. You have to come up with something that approximates the music."

Oddly, one of the most time consuming pieces was a song that was most familiar to Wagler, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" which will be performed by a quartet of young men.

"I pulled it out of my head, I know that tune so well," he said. "I built the orchestra around it but it still took a lot of time."

Some of the music is available as sheet music, but only for piano and vocal and even that doesn't always translate well for a full show choir and orchestra.

The advantage for Wagler is that he has been writing music for Glee for a number of years so he knows the choir, knows what they are capable of and writes music accordingly.

For all his work, Wagler has no idea if he will receive any sort of fee after the bills are paid. "It depends on ticket sales," he said. As well, all the music is unlikely to be used again because there are no show choirs of the calibre of KW Glee able to do this sort of concert.

"To perform again, it would never happen," he said. "There's no other show choir doing this. It's a unique group."

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Glee has spent hours rehearsing the music leading up to this concert and they will only have one rehearsal with the symphony, on the same day as the first concert. And to further complicate things, Wagler will be facing the orchestra conducting while Glee stands behind him. For this, the choir must learn to pick up musical cues without looking at a conductor so everything is in sync.

KW Glee was launched in 2010 under the direction of Kind as well as Steve Lehmann and today there are seven staff members including choreographers and vocal coaches. This is a serious and growing choir that has become so polished they will be competing at the National Show Choir Competition in Toronto this spring, in a brand new category.

"They're opening it up to community groups," said Kind.

The group is split into two age groups: juniors age nine to 13 and seniors age 14 to 22. Many of the group's former members have gone on to study music or musical theatre at such prestigious schools as the Randolph Academy of Performing Arts in Toronto as well as Guildford School of Acting in London, England and the Royal Conservatory of Scotland.

Kind recalled when the choir first started with a few kids practising in a church basement backed by a few instruments.

"We thought we'd hit the pinnacle then," she said with a laugh.

If You Go KW Glee Live with the KW Symphony

Jan. 19 and 20, 7:30 p.m.

Centre In the Square, 101 Queen St. N. in Kitchener

All tickets are $35, online at kwsymphony.ca or 519-745-4711 or 1-888-745-4717