On February 5-7, 2025, six Montoursville Area High School choir students attended the District 8 PMEA Choir Festival at Bloomsburg University. Instead of staying at a hotel like at previous festivals, all of the students commuted daily, courtesy of MAHS Choir Director Mrs. Kirstin Gist.
“Personally it’s always surreal singing at these festivals since the school choir doesn’t have a large pool of confident bass voices,” said senior Andrew Ware, surrounding the most enjoyable part of the festival.
Seniors Naomi Alexander (Alto I), Hunter Hepler (Tenor II), Andrew Ware (Bass I), Addison Confer (Tenor II), and juniors Alice Ravert (Soprano I) and Savanna Farley (Alto II) all participated in this festival. These students qualified for District Choir back in October, and have been vigorously preparing their music ever since.
In addition to individual practice on their own time, the students organized different rehearsal sessions amongst the group to prepare their music. The Sunday before the week of the festival, five out of the six students met at the high school for over two hours to rehearse the music with each other.
The first night of the festival, the students completed their auditions to qualify for Region 4 PMEA Choir, the next step after Districts.
“Before the audition I was nervous, but I kept telling myself that no matter the result, I’m proud of myself for auditioning,” said Ware when asked how he felt before auditioning.
Ravert, Ware, and Confer all placed high enough in their respective voice parts and are advancing to Region 4 PMEA Choir in March.
On the second day of the festival, rehearsal was delayed due to snow and began six hours late at 3:00 P.M., instead of 9:00 A.M. All of the Montoursville students were transported to and from the festival via Alexander’s and Confer’s parents.
Farley said, “Getting to regroup with everyone on Thursday afternoon on our way to the festival was great – it was really good to talk when we weren’t nervous anymore!”
For some of the students, it was their first choir festival of their high school career.
Farley was one of those people, “There were lots of smiles shared from across the ensemble with friends and entertaining dinner conversations! Everything about this festival was unlike any experience I have ever had and I couldn’t have asked for anything different. 100/10 recommend!” said Farley when prompted on how her first experience was.
For this festival, the guest conductor was Dr. Allyss Haecker, the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Emory & Henry College.
Many of the students, and not just from MAHS, enjoyed Haecker, especially for her energy.
“Right from the beginning, she had so much energy and she maintained it throughout the whole festival – it was impressive!” said Farley. “She wasn’t afraid to be silly and she made sure to share fun stories from her own life – some that related to her song choices for the concert, and others that didn’t.”
Haecker’s selection of pieces for the festival was as follows: “Indodana” arr. Michael Barrett, “Soon I Will Be Done” arr. Mark Hayes, “Measure Me, Sky” arr. Elaine Hagenberg, “Caritas Abundat” arr. Michael John Trotta, “Wild Mountain Thyme” arr. Jacob Narve, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” arr. J. David Moore, and “Where The Light Begins” arr. Susan Labarr.
Ware said that “Soon I Will Be Done” was his favorite piece to sing.
“The chords and rhythms were so abnormal and jarring making it a captivating piece to not only sing, but listen to it as well,” he said.
“This year it truly felt like everyone loved every song we were singing,” said Alexander when she remarked on the choir repertoire.
Overall, students were very grateful for this opportunity and brought pride to the school for their hard work and choral achievements.
“It really is life changing getting to sing with these kids who are so talented and also getting to learn all these different things from the guest conductors,” said Alexander, concerning the best part of the festival.
Featured photo (at top): The following MAHS students pose for a picture by the PMEA banner: (left to right) Juniors Alice Ravert, Savanna Farley, and seniors Naomi Alexander, Andrew Ware, Hunter Hepler, and Addison Confer. The students put their school choir robes on and sported their pins for the concert. Photo from the Montoursville Music Department Facebook page
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