Northwest Area High School hosted the Region IV round of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Chorus Festival last week. Around 160 students hailing from what was anticipated to be 46 schools across Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania gathered at Northwest Area for a three-day showcase of the region\u2019s choral talent.<\/p>\n
Music teacher Scott Quinn, who is in his 26th year working at Northwest Area, handles \u201call things music\u201dfor the district, running the Rangers band, marching band, and choir.\u00a0 As the host of the regional festival, Quinn said he was excited to see students unify in recognition of their talent, while teachers can meet to share new ideas about their music programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a joy to see students come together like this,\u201d Quinn said before the festival. \u201cI\u2019m just honored to be able to host that and to be able to facilitate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those participating in the festival were the students who advanced from the district-level choruses to the Region IV choir. The first day of the festival, on Feb. 18, had members of that regional ensemble audition to advance to the all-state choir. Thirty-two students total from the regionals advance to all-state, with four singers being cast in one of eight voice parts and there being two parts each for soprano, tenor, alto, and base. Similar all-state auditions among five other regional choirs were staged throughout the commonwealth last week.<\/p>\n
All the regional choir students rehearsed for much of the day Thursday and Friday before taking the stage Friday evening for the festival\u2019s climatic regional concert. The concert arrangement was set to feature classical works, such as those by Mozart, as well as multicultural, contemporary, and religious pieces \u2013 creating a show that Quinn said would sample a variety of works from the \u201cspectrum of artistry.\u201d\u00a0 Some of the songs feature an accompaniment of a piano while others were a cappella. The regional choir included three students from Northwest Area \u2013 Kelsey Marvin, who was singing soprano 2; Ethan Mitarnowski, singing tenor 1; and Sean Stoeckle, singing bass 2.<\/p>\n
Christopher Kiver, a music professor and choral director at Pennsylvania State University, served as the regional choir\u2019s guest conductor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an intense moment on Wednesday night when they go through their auditions, but then they get to rehearse and sing together and perform in concert on Friday evening, so it\u2019s a really, really tremendous event,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a nice event, all the way through and through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quinn said the concert Friday was a manifestation of students and teachers\u2019 efforts over the course of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor them to get that kind of musical experience and be led by a premier conductor in Dr. Kiver\u2026it\u2019s a testament to their work, to their schools, to their music teachers, their preparation, and their programs,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cWithout support all the way through, it\u2019s not possible to do those.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northwest Area has previously hosted district-level music festivals in 2002 and 2012, with Quinn also serving as host then. Quinn said being able to host the regional concert was both a special moment for him as a teacher, as well as for Northwest Area students, as they work with premier choir students and an elite conductor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you host yourself, it gives you certainly a new appreciation for the preparation it takes and what\u2019s involved to try to make it a special occasion for everybody involved,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a great thing to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northwest Area High School hosted the Region IV round of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Chorus Festival last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[227,182,803,139,28,30,29,802],"class_list":{"0":"post-124335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-luzerne-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-top-stories-cvc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}