World Youth Day 2008 next week will be a big venue for a small show choir from St. Francis School in Manoa.

The 15-member choir will perform twice in Sydney, at St. Ambrose Church on July 13 and at the Harbourside Amphitheatre at Darling Harbour on July 19 during their July 11-23 trip to Australia.

Mary Ann Llamedo, the St. Francis chorus and band director, formed the show choir last year to be a more “dynamic” musical group. “There has been lots of growing pains but we survived,” she said. “And here we are ready to go [to Sydney].”

The group includes Llamedo’s three daughters, Annie, Mandy and Jonie, all St. Francis alumnae who are in a band and will be playing back-up with a fellow band member, the only male member of the group. The other members are students from grades eight through 12, plus two other St. Francis alumnae.

The show choir will perform eight contemporary Christian songs with choreographed movements in their two World Youth Day performances. Two of the group’s best numbers, according to Llamedo, are covers of “Gather at the River” by Point of Grace and “River” by Out of Eden.

In the future, Llamedo hopes to get the show choir up to 25 members and has plans for the group to tour. “We’re actually going to be doing a lot of ministry,” she said, with praise and worship performances.