Current, Former students stage benefit for teacher.

These are some of the words Cyprus High School alumni used to describe their choir teacher Kerry Moore who was diagnosed with two neuroendocrine tumors in March.
Former students organized a tribute concert in Moore's honor to raise money Saturday, featuring choir and madrigals alumni, special guests Bob Gandy and SHeDAISY, and about 700 audience members.
Although the concert was free to the public, the event raised more than $7,500 in concession sales and private donations, including a $5,000 donation from Dave Osborn, a SHeDAISY member's father, for Moore's fund.
The show opened with a 24-year alumni roll call, starting with 1985 when Moore began teaching at Cyprus. As each year was called, former students in the audience stood up and choir alumni took spots on stage.
Graduates from each year were present in the audience, and by the year 2008, about 50 people filled the choral rows on stage.
"They're all grown up," Moore said. "The time they spent in our school is fresh in my mind, even though it's been 25 years."
Although the former choir students didn't all know each other, Moore still remembers every one of their names.
"It's the happiest day of my life, next to marrying my wife," he said.
Michelle Dangerfield-Dennis, an '86

graduate and a former madrigal, said confidence is the main thing she learned from Moore.
"When I started in his class, I was scared to sing loud," she said.
Moore played a piano session specifically for then-Dennis, so she could open up her voice without other students present, and it worked, she said.
"I was in musicals and everything because he gave me that confidence," said Dangerfield-Dennis.
Moore's former students reiterated the impact he has brought on them and his kindness and caring for them.
"I don't remember the time when he'd get terribly upset or mad," said Adam Proctor, a three-year choir member who graduated in 1990. "You're a better person having to know him."
Members of the country group SHeDAISY, Magna natives and Cyprus graduates, were among Moore's students and performers Saturday night.
"Even though we've been out of high school for so long, we keep in touch," said Kelsi Simpson of SHeDAISY. "The smallest thing we could do is to be here."
Before their two-song set, Simpson told a story about Moore's preparedness to be there when students needed him.
Simpson and her sister and bandmate Kassidy Osborn were in a small band during their high school years in the early '90s. They scored a gig at Jackpot, Nev., but their keyboard player couldn't come with them.
The sisters' dad suggested them to invite Moore on the road trip to take the missing musician's place, Simpson said. She even mentioned that he is a teacher and wouldn't have time to do it, because it was a school night, but invited Moore anyway.
Not only did he agree to wing the songs without enough practice and play at a "tough club" in Jackpot, he excused the sisters' absences from his class the following day.
"He was such a sport to be there and fill in," Simpson said.
"We saw a different side of him that we weren't used to seeing," Osborn said, referring to the unconventional teacher-student relationship Moore has shown them.
Osborn said she had many choir teachers as she was growing up, but she has learned the most from Moore.
She likes Moore's ability to see students' talents and improve them.
"He doesn't mold you into what you're not," Osborne said. He discovers what students are good at and pushes them in that direction, adding she has written more songs in Moore's class than outside of it.
"I'm glad I've been able to share so much beautiful music with all of [these students]," Moore said after the concert.
The choir alumni surprised Moore before the night's last song and asked him to conduct it for them. Although he didn't expect it, he agreed.
"They say that a teacher can influence thousands of lives. That is true," he said, but he has also been influenced by all his students.
"What you've given to me is inexpressible," he said.
Moore successfully battled pancreatic cancer five years ago, before he learned of new tumors a few months ago.
At Cyprus, he has taught choir, AP music theory, German and has helped directing school musicals.
Any monetary donations are accepted at Cyprus Credit Union under Kerry Moore's name until July 14.