So you’ve probably heard about PMEA choir, as The Arrowhead has published countless articles relating to those students and their festival accomplishments. But have you heard what is it like to actually experience one of these festivals firsthand? Chances are that you haven’t, which is why this article will be taking you through my personal experience at the Region 4 PMEA Choir Festival.
Myself, along with Montoursville’s choir director, Mrs. Kirstin Gist, and the two other attending students, seniors Addison Confer (Tenor II) and Andrew Ware (Bass I), left for Lewisburg High School after school on Wednesday, March 19. Since we as a school opted out of staying at the festival’s provided hotel, Mrs. Gist drove everyone to and from Lewisburg every day.
There is an ongoing tradition among PMEA students, that before every audition night (the first night of the festival), we all stop at Panera Bread for dinner. I always get a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a bagel, and a cookie – kind of like a pre-audition ritual for me.
Once we had our dinner, we arrived at Lewisburg High School for auditions. After checking in, Addison, Andrew, and I walked into the auditorium to claim a spot for our stuff and go find our friends. At this festival, we mainly hung out with the Williamsport and Benton kids.
After talking with everyone for a while, I sat down and went through all of my music again, as I was very nervous for my audition. The round of auditions held at Region Choir are to qualify for All-State Chorus, and since I made it last year, I really wanted to make it again to prove to myself that I could do it.
After about 30 minutes waiting in the auditorium, all voice parts were taken into separate “holding rooms,” where each student waits until their number is called to go audition. Once I was in the Soprano 1 holding room, which was a random science class, a director from another school announced our numbers (I was #13) and audition cuts for the two selected songs and we all marked our music to ensure we would sing the right excerpts.
The next part is always the most tortuous for me – the wait. Since I get really nervous before auditioning, I am not one to socialize with other people in the holding rooms, so I took a nap. Well, I tried to take a nap, but I was so nervous that I ended up just keeping my head down trying to keep relatively calm.
After about an hour, the student runner, a non-choir student who walks the auditionees from the holding room to the audition room, came in the door and called, “Numbers 13, 14, and 15?” That was me. I grabbed all of my things, including my almost-empty water bottle, and was ushered to the audition room.
Once outside the audition room, the “advocate,” a choir teacher from another school district, checked my music to see that I had marked it right, and then I had to wait another five minutes or so until the judges were ready. Fortunately, Izzy Sorber, one of my friends from Benton Area School District, was also waiting outside her audition room at the same time as me which made me feel a little better.
When the judges were finally ready, I was led into the room by my advocate, put my music on the music stand, and nodded to the advocate that I was ready to begin. Students are not allowed to speak during the audition and the judges are facing backwards as to keep the identity of the student secret to ensure fair scoring. The advocate told the judges that I was ready for my starting pitch of my first excerpt, I took a deep breath and began.
When I was finished with the first song, I nodded again to the advocate who then announced I was ready for my second starting pitch. I took another deep breath and sang through the rest of the audition. When I was done, I headed back to the auditorium to hang out with my friends until every voice part was done auditioning and we all could go home for the night.
The relief that I feel each time I finish an audition is the best part of every festival. All of my stress was gone and I could finally relax. Auditions wrapped up around 9 p.m., and with the commute back to Montoursville, I got home for the night at around 10 p.m.
Usually I would have gone straight to bed, but I did have a lot of make-up work to do since the festival usually takes up two school days, so I did a little homework and went to bed at midnight, excited for the first day of rehearsal.
With the audition night over with, the first “official” day of the festival began the next day. We had to be ready to depart for Lewisburg by 7:30 a.m., so I got up around 6:30 a.m. to get ready. Once Addison, Andrew, and I were all at the school, Mrs. Gist drove us all back to Lewisburg High School to begin rehearsal.
When we got there, we had about 30 minutes of down time until the guest conductor arrived. During this time, my friends and I all played card games together, including one we like to call “Bobsnockery,” and “Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.”
Once the conductor arrived, we were all instructed to find a seat labelled with our voice part on the stage. I tried to sit where I could at least see my friends, since I don’t really know anyone in my section, Soprano I. I liked my seat; I could see everyone I knew and I had a clear view of the guest conductor, who was soon introduced as Dr. Caleb Hopkins from Bucknell University.
Dr. Hopkins started out rehearsal with a long warmup. I immediately got the impression that he was a humble, quiet man, since not once throughout the entire festival did he talk about himself. I liked him, though. He gave the choir many singing tips that were both really useful and stuck in my brain. He talked a lot about ending consonants and taught us how to differentiate between consonants that held pitch and those that didn’t, and how to articulate each kind.
We spent the majority of our morning rehearsal, which was from 9 to noon with a snack break at 10:30, working on the broader details of the music before we dug into the tiny details later on. Almost no one is ever focused during these first morning rehearsals, though, because as soon as noon hits, audition placements are announced. This is what almost everyone is waiting for, to hear who is advancing to states.
We weren’t supposed to find out this early, but Dr. Hopkins ended rehearsal early so we all had some extra
time for lunch. Danville’s choir director, Mrs. Rebecca Pritchard, is usually the person who announced placement results, but this time a different director did. Everyone was so used to associating her face with audition results, but this time it was different and it made everyone even more nervous.
As soon as the new director stepped up to read the results, the volume in the room plummeted and all of our heart rates skyrocketed. The top four singers in each section move on to states, with fifth place being “first alternate,” which you can think of as a substitute if someone gets sick right before states and can’t go.
He started with the basses, and I crossed my fingers for Andrew. Unfortunately, Andrew’s name was not read, and the director moved on to my section, the sopranos. I took a breath and braced myself; I was so close, one step away from accomplishing my goals for my junior year. The director announced first alternate, then fourth place, then third place. My name had not been read. Then, the director announced, “Second place, from Montoursville, Alice Ravert.” I let out the biggest sigh of relief; I had made it to state choir again!
The altos were read next. I listened to hear if my Williamsport friend’s names as well as Izzy’s were announced, but I was sad when I didn’t hear any of them. Next, the tenors. I listened closely for Addison’s name, as well as my other Benton friend, Wilmar Lewis’s, name. The director announced that Wilmar placed fifth, and was first alternate, and then read that Addison had also placed second and was moving on to states!
The results had been read, and we all raced off the stage and gave each other the biggest hugs. I congratulated Addison and told him how excited I was that we were going to Kalahari Resort in Pocono Manor together, the place where state choir is going to be held this year. I was very proud of everyone and all of the work we had put in to get this far together.
We all headed to lunch afterwards, which lasted until 2:15 p.m., and then we were back in rehearsal until 6 p.m., dinner. After dinner, we got to watch a Stephen Sondheim-themed performance by a few of Bucknell University’s Voice Lab students.
It was fun to sit with all of my friends and watch a show after a long day of rehearsal! After the show was a short Q&A with the performers about anything and everything college-related. It was very helpful to hear what majoring in music and being in ensembles at the college level is like, considering that I plan to major in Music Education in college as well.
The Montoursville crew said goodbye to our group and left Lewisburg around 9 p.m., getting home around 9:45 p.m. I was way too tired to do anything when I got home, except shower and scroll through Instagram for a bit, and I fell asleep around 10:30 p.m.
The next morning, Friday, March 21, I woke up and got ready at the same time as the previous morning, this time remembering to grab my black concert attire, choir robes, and PMEA medals to wear for the concert that evening.
Mrs. Gist again drove myself, Addison, and Andrew back to Lewisburg High School once more, and we began our final stretch of rehearsals around 9 a.m. This rehearsal was more tedious, as we started to run through songs all the way through. Dr. Hopkins started to pick apart the little details to ensure we were singing to our best abilities.
I did enjoy the fact that Dr. Hopkins seemed to give us longer and much more frequent snack breaks than previous guest conductors I’ve had. Any downtime we had, my friends and I all hung out and played some sort of card game together while we snacked.
We took a break for lunch from 1:15 to 2:15 PM, and then went right back to rehearsing, this time while standing on the choir risers which had been set up during lunch. We did something really cool during this leg of rehearsal. Dr. Hopkins instructed all of us to make a circle and line the sides of the auditorium. Once in position, we sang through Moses Hogan’s, “I Can Tell The World,” while slowly walking in a circle. It was so interesting to hear all the different voice parts echo all throughout the room while singing the song.
We had another snack break at 4 p.m., and after that we began our official dress rehearsal. After adjusting our places on the risers to ensure everyone was able to be seen, we ran through each song as needed. This didn’t take very long, as by that time we were all very prepared and ready for the concert.
With the dress rehearsal finished, students were given dinner at 5 p.m. and were instructed to change into concert attire and choir robes and be back on the stage for a picture by 6:15 p.m. This was the time where Addison, Andrew, and I all got pictures in our robes by the classic PMEA banners as seen on the Montoursville Music Department Facebook page.
From the time of the photo until the concert, students hung out in Lewisburg’s gym as the audience members
filled the seat of the auditorium, awaiting the incredible concert that was soon to begin. While we were waiting, our Montoursville/Williamsport/Benton group got tons of pictures together in our choir robes to commemorate the amazing time we all shared together at the festival.
At 6:55 p.m., we lined up, and at 7 p.m. sharp, we started our walk down the auditorium and onto the stage, signifying the beginning of the concert. My favorite part of every PMEA concert is the wild applause the audience gives us as we’re just walking in the auditorium. I think it’s just amazing how they haven’t even heard us sing yet and yet they never fail to cheer and applaud for each member of the choir.
When everyone was on stage and ready, the host of the festival and Lewisburg’s choir director, Mr. Jon Walz, gave a short welcome speech, introduced Dr. Hopkins, and the concert was underway.
The concert order was as follows: “O Sing Joyfully” arr. Adrian Batten, “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” arr. Stanley M. Hoffman, “Three Australian Bush Song” arr. Iain Grandage, the men’s piece “The Pasture” arr. Randall Thompson, “I Can Tell The World” arr. Moses Hogan, the women’s piece “Still I Rise” arr. Rosephanye Powell, and finally, “Somewhere” from West Side Story, arr. Robert Edgerton.
If you asked me to pick a favorite, I really don’t think I could because I loved each piece for entirely different reasons. Although this concert wasn’t my favorite in terms of music selection, I still ended up enjoying all the pieces a lot more than I originally thought when I first started practicing them. I would, however, strongly encourage any music-lover to take a listen to the “Three Australian Bush Songs,” as it is perhaps the most interesting and diverse piece I have ever sung!
After the soaring, angelic high notes at the end of the last piece, “Somewhere,” the concert came to a close, the audience rose to their feet, and a standing ovation thundered throughout the auditorium. Dr. Hopkins was presented with a small gift for his contributions to the festival, and for all of his sacrifices given the fact that his wife gave birth to their first child the day before the festival and had to look after the newborn without Dr. Hopkins around while he was at the festival.
After the applause ended and everyone had filed offstage, we collected all of our belongings from the gym and headed out into the crowd to meet our families. I received flowers from many people, and got pictures with Mrs. Gist, Mr. Morgan, Miss Burleigh, my grandparents, and some more with my friends.
Although I’m always exhausted after concerts and ready to go home, it’s always hard saying goodbye to an event that you’ve looked forward to for so long, especially when you’ve made so many memories with the people you went with, and even more especially when half of those people are seniors and just had their last festival. I’m so grateful to be able to be part of a community that has these kinds of opportunities available to both myself and others, and I can’t wait for countless more PMEA festivals in the future.
After a few more hugs and congratulations, my family and I headed out the doors of Lewisburg High School, marking the end of the Region 4 PMEA Chorus Festival.
Featured photo (at top): The members of the Region 4 Choir pose for a formal picture before the concert. The festival was held at Lewisburg Area High School from March 19-21. Photo by Kirstin Gist
Socials