Everything you hear on stage at the Miss Missouri pageant is on a laptop controlled by Bill Wolfe.

Wolfe spends every show perched in the tech booth behind the bleachers in the Missouri Military Academy gymnatorium, carefully selecting and queuing up tracks to turn every night into a magnificent production.

“It’s just an unbelievable process of what’s happened to me, and it all started in Mexico, Missouri,” Wolfe said.

A high school music teacher by trade, Wolfe holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal/instrumental music education with a minor in piano performance from the University of Nebraska. After years of teaching, he moved to Kansas City to further his education at the University of Missouri — a decision that would dramatically change his career trajectory.

Wolfe started playing piano in hotel lobbies while he was doing graduate work and said he was approached by someone who needed a track made for a pageant.

“I didn’t even know what a pageant was,” Wolfe said.

At the time, recorded tracks were still a new concept in the pageant world. Wolfe said many competitors sang with a live pianist or anyone they could get to perform their talent with. After his first track, Wolfe was hooked, and soon he was the director of the Miss Kansas City pageant.

“Larry Webber, who used to be the executive director here, was a judge for my pageant,” he said.

Immediately after the show, Webber asked him to come produce Miss Missouri for him in Mexico. Wolfe said he pretended to think about it, but producing Miss Missouri was something he really wanted, so he gave up his local title and began a new chapter of his life.

“I came here and produced for him for like five years, and those were the televised years when we were on 14 stations across Missouri,” Wolfe said. “I didn’t know anything about television, but I knew about production — I knew about music.”

Wolfe produced the televised 1993 Miss Missouri pageant, which was the inspiration behind this year's Vogue theme. That production won a Telly Award, which is still sitting on Wolfe’s piano at home.

“It was Larry Webber’s goal to play with the big boys, which in pageant land at the time was Texas and Mississippi,” Wolfe said. “Mammoth stages and beautiful sets, well here we are with what we have to deal with and, by God, it worked. Our little performers got the special Emmy award.”

While producing Miss Missouri, Wolfe said the demand for tracks came back around when state titleholders would prepare for Miss America.

“I started doing arrangements for them, and it just erupted,” he said.

When he started, Wolfe said nobody was producing tracks. Now, he has a library of approximately 2,500 tracks that competitors from all over the country get from Wolfe on his website. Wolfe offers more than just background music for singers. His tracks back a variety of talents such as dance, Her Story and various instrumentals for musicians.

Wolfe doesn’t just make the tracks; he is also a vocal coach who said even performers who can only hit a couple of notes can be made to sound like they have talent. It’s a tricky process that starts with knowing a singer’s range.

“I had a Kansas City girl that absolutely could match two notes the first year,” Wolfe said. “Second year, she got up to four notes; third year, six notes, and then she won the pageant.”

Wolfe is on the road at least eight times a year, traveling all over the country to coach the young delegates and work on tracks. Usually, he sets up in a gown shop so clients have an opportunity to work with Wolfe before shopping for their gowns.

“On a typical weekend, when I go to Atlanta, I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” Wolfe said. “I see 30 girls — 10 a day.”

One of Wolfe’s clients, Deya Williams, Miss Park City’s Teen, came all the way from Texas just one week out from her own state competition to perform on the Miss Missouri stage. Wolfe helped Williams pick her talent last year, which was her second year competing, and has continued to coach her. He personally asked Williams to come to Missouri to be part of this year’s production.

“It’s been absolutely wonderful,” Williams said. “I am so glad I said yes.”

Williams is a self-proclaimed “theater kid” who said she has been singing her entire life, but singing on a pageant stage is completely different.

“It’s more fun,” she said. “It’s something bigger than myself, so I'm glad that I get to share that gift this way.”

Williams will be performing all weekend, and after seeing what the Miss Missouri’s Teen delegates have to offer, she said the judges will have a tough decision to make.

“I think they are all fantastic,” she said. “I think they are all so beautiful, they’re all so very kind, and they’re also very capable.”

Miss Missouri’s Teen will be crowned tonight after the top 11 semifinalists face off in all four phases of competition one last time.