ALPINE -- Timberline Middle School choir teacher Cathy Jolley has been in one place that many would love to be, but few have been -- the conductor's podium in the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

Last month, Jolley conducted a choir of 360 LDS women for the LDS Church's Relief Society Conference broadcast. It was not an easy task getting that many voices to stay on time, and cut off at the same time -- to say the least, the role of choir director for such a prestigious meeting is not an honor easily bestowed.

How does the church find out about conductors? The LDS Church Presidency sent a member of its music department to one of Jolley's concerts, she said. An interesting fact about the choirs that perform in broadcasts is that the conductors are not put with people they know. Jolley is from Utah Valley, but she had to drive more than an hour to practice with her choir members from stakes in Clearfield, Clinton, Syracuse, West Point and Sunset.

Jolley had never even heard of West Point. "I thought it was the end of the world," she said with a laugh. "You're driving past the Great Salt Lake, and there are just farms, and then nothing. But West Point just celebrated their 150 year anniversary."

Jolley also wondered, at first, why she was not put over a choir of people closer to home. "But there is a great deal of growth that happens from that," Jolley said.

Even after a month of weekly practices, Jolley was nervous for the actual broadcast.

"The assistant director had the talks and everything. As they were winding down, I'd get antsy," she said. The assistant would remind her, though, to go slowly up to the podium. "I thought, 'Are you kidding? That's the only way I'm going to get up those steps!' " she said, chuckling.

Being the choir director for a worldwide broadcast is only one of the many achievements for Jolley, who, every day, stands where many people fear to go -- a classroom in a junior high.

Jolley is the choir teacher at Timberline Middle School in Alpine, and probably one of her greatest achievements is there. At Timberline, it is cool to sing.

She has 420 students, and her class sizes range from about 30 to 100. And still, she has no problems with classroom management. She has a quick and ready laugh, but in her class she is stern and strong, seeking excellence from her students.

"She asked for 100 kids," said Timberline principal Terry Hill. "She works easily with that size. The kids want to impress her, and please her. ... And she never quits trying to better her program. She truly is a master teacher, consistently looking for ways to improve."

She has been teaching for 21 years. When her children were teenagers, she went back to school. After she finished school, she started at American Fork Junior High School, teaching the last six weeks of that school year.

"That was a huge baptism by fire," she said.

She continued at AFJHS, then after four years she moved to Mountain Ridge Junior High. In 2003 she moved to Timberline.

"When she left Mountain Ridge for Timberline, I had a lot of people tell me how sad they were their kids wouldn't have her," Hill said. He went on to say that there was a joke then too, that property values in Highland went down $2,500 because she left.

Last year she was able to commission a composition for her choir by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Director Mack Wilberg. He hasn't composed for a junior high before or since.

Jolley said she was tickled when she found out the Tabernacle Choir was learning Timberline's song, "Down to the River to Pray," but also a little nervous.

"I just imagine the choir seeing it, because the music has 'composed for Timberline Middle School,' on it," she said.

Like a true teacher, Jolley says all of this fades in comparison to her daily work.

"Junior high is when you can grab them. I'd do this even if I didn't get paid. I get to do what I love to do every day," she said. "I want my students to go away from the choir having experienced excellence, having the feeling of loving what they do. If music has changed their lives, affected them for good, and I have taught them to love music, then I've been a success."

Besides, in her mind, her hobbies are not yet enough to fill her days.

"What else would I do? You can only scrapbook for so many days," she said with her characteristic laugh.