By DEB NICKLAY, Of the Globe Gazette

MASON CITY - True or false:

A. Mason City director of vocal music Joel Everist used to sport long hair and an earring.

B. Everist's grandfather was a childhood friend of Meredith Willson.

C. Everist met his wife, Rachel, at Gustavus Adolphus College, asking her to be his accompanist just so he could ask her out for a date.

D. Everist was born in Detroit, Mich., just after the 1967 race riots.

If you answered "True" to all of the above, you're right.

Also true is that the man who has helped the Mason City High School Concert Choir reach national acclaim doesn't like to talk about himself much.

"It's not about me, it's about the kids," Everist said on the bus ride back to Iowa from New York City last week.

But he was tired from the choir's appearance at the New York City Choral Festival, where his choir swept top honors, and a reporter caught him off-guard. So he talked. A little bit.

Everist's parents were pastors in Detroit, ministering to inner-city congregations.

Although the schools he attended in Detroit - and later, New Haven, Conn. - did not have choral departments, his mother began a boys choir after school.

He grew up playing the trumpet and singing, and was active in theater. Occasionally, his parents would take vacations in their hometown of Mason City.

"It was strange, a completely different world," Everist said of his trips to the Midwest.

His parents moved back to Iowa as Everist was entering his high school years and he graduated from Dubuque High School, which did have a choral department. He earned his undergraduate degree at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.

After teaching two years in Viroqua, Wis. (when he had to cut his hair), he came to Mason City.

"My aunt, who was moving, was literally wrapping and packing a bowl with the Globe Gazette when she looked down and saw the ad for choir director. She called me right away," he said.

Eyebrows raised when Everist, at 25, landed the job.

"Do I remember the first day? I walked into the choir room, up to the podium and I was overwhelmed. Sometimes transition is hard; everyone expects something different."

Everist, however, embraced the job, helping his choirs earn national fame with wins in choral contests throughout the country, including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and, most recently, Lincoln Center.

The choir's first contest in Chicago, where it won a gold medal, "was a turning point," he said.

"That's when everyone looked at me a little differently," he said.

National competitions built student pride, he said.

"It's not that we went here or there, won this or that, but that students have something to strive for," he said.

During the recent New York trip, he was often heard saying, "We don't compete, we create."

Everist said his biggest contribution to the program is in its repertoire.

"I think the biggest change I've brought is bringing multicultural music to the program, such as 'Bandari.' Exposure to different cultures and seeking a sense of community is how I grew up; it seemed natural to bring it to the music."

"Bandari," based on African and Caribbean styles, has since become the choir's signature piece, with solos and dances sought after by choir members.

Everist counts himself lucky to be working in Mason City, although he admits that the pressure to do well grows every year.

"I hear it all the time from people, 'Well, how are you going to top that?' contest or competition."

But he loves the fact that Mason City schools support the arts so well.

"Here, it's cool to be in choir, cool to be in band; we have such a neat tradition," he said.

He also counts himself lucky to have Rachel, who, of course, agreed to be his accompanist and later, his wife.

Rachel is the MCHS choir accompanist, but also teaches piano at Wartburg College in Waverly and North Iowa Area Community College.

"You can't imagine how important she is to me," Everist said.

She not only supports him on the home front, but is able to provide accompaniment that is advanced and, at times, inspired.

"I am free to do so many other things, take directing to a different level, because of Rachel," he said.

Students pay Joel Everist respect and affection in equal measure.

"He's a great teacher, in all aspects. It's not just in singing, it's about us, too," said junior Brad Bissig, 17.

Superintendent of Schools Keith Sersland said he appreciates Everist's dedication to giving students an appreciation of music, and his ability to appreciate students.

"He has a great relationship with students, and drives them to do things well, just like Joel does, with power and passion."

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