SOUTH PORTLAND – Bluegrass, an American roots music defined by upbeat tempos played with fiddles, banjos and other stringed instruments, is not a genre typically found in a high school choral group’s repertoire.

And for the 100 area students presenting Carol Barnett’s “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass,” last weekend as part of the annual Choral Masterworks Festival at South Portland High School, it was unlike anything they had ever sung before.

“It is definitely a challenging piece,” said Ali Abramson, a junior at South Portland High School, who has participated in the festival before.

Since 1997, the festival, started by former Gorham High School Choral Director Darrell Morrill, has been bringing together students from area high schools to perform challenging choral works not typically taken on at individual schools.

In years past, students have performed works by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Antonio Vivaldi, as well as more recent composers, such as John Rutter, Benjamin Britten, Daniel Pinkham and Carl Orff. Last year the concert featured Paul Basler’s “Missa Kenya.”

South Portland’s director of vocal music, Beverly Hosic, said Dr. Richard Russell, a professor of music at the University of Southern Maine and the series’ guest conductor, originally suggested to do work by Vivaldi or Mozart again, but eventually settled on Barnett’s 2006 piece – which combines classical music arrangements with the bluegrass sounds of banjo, mandolin and fiddle music. It’s a work he had never conducted before and until last weekend it had never been performed in Maine.

Barnett, who lives Minnesota and currently teaches at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, has been creating music in all genres since the 1970s. In 2006, with the help of librettist Marisha Chamberlain, Barnett composed “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass.” It was originally performed by Minnesota-based bluegrass band Monroe Crossing and choral group VocalEssence.

It was the kind of work Hosic and her fellow choral directors had never tried to do, until now. Taking on such a piece, she said provides a tremendous learning opportunity for students.

“The students get a great opportunity to work with a well-respected director, to sing with their peers from other schools and sing really challenging music that requires the forces of many,” said Michelle Snow, music teacher at Westbrook High School, who started preparing her students for the concert in January.

Hosic said the camaraderie the group, which also included students from Massabesic High School, Oxford Hills High School and South Portland High School, created from singing together in such a festival is unmatched.

“There is nothing like singing together in a big work,” she said.

“It’s been really interesting,” Margo Carroll, a junior at Westbrook High School, said of the piece. “It’s cool to interact with the other schools and see how compatible we are. It’s definitely different because it is such an interesting piece musically. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Westbrook High School senior Stephanie Brown, who has performed in the festival for four years, said the piece was much more challenging than other works she has performed as part of the festival.

“It’s totally a different experience. It’s a good experience because it broadens the style we are used to performing. It’s harder than the other Masterworks, because it bring a whole new style to the classical works,” said Brown, who hopes to continue her participation in choir and musical theater at the University of Southern Maine.

“The feeling of coming together to sing such beautiful music up on stage is such a good feeling,” said South Portland High School senior Jon-Luc Donnangelo.

Courtney Mailly solos for the Westbrook Chamber Singers during the Choral Masterworks Festival Saturday in South Portland. (Photo by Rich Obrey)