Fans of the TV show “Glee” have a good idea of what a high school choral festival is all about: ensembles from many different schools and towns competing before a panel of judges and singing their hearts out. The University of Rhode Island will host the RI ACDA/ RIMEA Senior Choral Festival on Wednesday and Thursday April 3 and 4, which is open to the public for free. Twenty-five choral ensembles from 15 RI towns will compete in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, 105 Upper College Rd., Kingston, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. each day.

They will earn awards based on their point averages in areas such as tone quality, balance and blend, intonation, expression, style & phrasing, dynamics, rhythm, and more. Judges will be Dr. Teresa Coffman of Rhode Island College, Dr. Jamie Spillane of the University of Connecticut, and Dr. Mark Conley of the University of Rhode Island. All three are award-winning teachers and conductors who direct the choral programs at their respective schools and are respected clinicians and adjudicators at festivals and programs around the country.

Participating high schools include: South Kingstown, Narragansett, Exeter/West Greenwich, Warwick Veterans Memorial, Pilgrim, Cranston High School East, Burrillville, Smithfield, William E. Tolman High and Jackie Walsh School for the Visual and Performing Arts (both Pawtucket), Barrington Christian Academy, Middletown, Scituate, North Smithfield, and Woonsocket.

The URI Concert Hall is handicap-accessible, and parking is available in the lot behind the Fine Arts Center, off Bills Road. For more information, please contact the URI Department of Music, 874-2431, or check the website www.uri.edu/

music.