Jim Ramsey will direct the Littleton Chorale’s Music Festival at 7 p.m. Tuesday Feb. 24 after months of preparation, bringing almost 300 voices and a 50-piece orchestra to the Newman Center to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the world’s most popular symphony.

Music students from five area high schools will participate: ThunderRidge, Chaparral, Gateway, Overland and Grandview. Ramsey has visited each to help them learn the German text to this spectacular work.

Chaparral instrumental musicians will perform side by side with members of the Colorado Chamber Orchestra, creating a 50-person orchestra, Ramsey said.

Each school will also present two numbers individually. Vocal or music directors from each school are: Darin Drown, Grandview; John Richard, Gateway; Ryan Wolterstorff, ThunderRidge; Margie Jacobson, Overland; Shel Stansfield, Chaparral.

There will be only one mass rehearsal, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on concert night in the auditorium. It all comes together in a grand spectacle. Ramsey says most of these kids will never again have a similar experience and learning opportunity.

“It fosters the art of the possible beyond what is normal.”

He has talked to students at CU, where he’s been a graduate student, learning that the experience in past years convinced them to become music majors.

“The text is about the brotherhood of man. That’s what the festival is about,” Ramsey said.

It’s been a particularly tough year for the Littleton Chorale to raise the necessary funds to present this festival, which costs about $20,000. It’s part of a community legacy, and has included scholarship awards. Ramsey is assembling the paperwork to apply for an NEA grant for 2010, he said.

The Littleton Chorale Music Festival will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 24 in Gates Hall, the Newman Center, 2344 E. Iliff Ave., at South University Blvd., Denver. (Parking entrance is from Wesley, one block south). Tickets at the door, $18, $15, $5. Or Ticketmaster. Information, 303-973-9593.