Vocalists in the Mixed Choir at the 2022 District III Music Festival
Lincoln Academy student musicians attended the District III Honors Music Festival on Friday, January 28 at Camden Hills Regional High School. It was scheduled as a two-day festival, but the organizers shortened it to one day and lengthened the rehearsal time because of the blizzard predicted for Saturday, January 29.
Student musicians auditioned for the festival in October. The audition was done through a video submission process where students recorded their pieces and sent them to judges. Of the 33 who auditioned from LA, 25 were selected for either Band or Choir. Juniors Liam Card and Ada Tholen were selected for both Band and Choir.
Nine instrumentalists were selected for in all-district band: Jayden Brown (clarinet), Liam Card (saxophone), Tristan Gammon (trumpet), Audrey Hufnagel (flute), Eli Melanson (bass clarinet), Brendan Stone (alto saxophone), Wyatt Stone (trombone), Cooper Swartzentruber (alto saxophone), and Ada Tholen (flute). Seven vocalists were selected for the mixed choir: Mariana Janik, Sage Kosky, Matthew Long, Connor McFarland, Ava Nery, Harrison Pierpan, and Mitchell Straus. Seven vocalists were selected for the treble choir: Hermione Blanchard-Fleming, Kayla Cruz, Izzy Petersen, Iris Pope, Kaydence Raymond, Sophia Scott, and Callie Stapp.
This was the first in-person music festival since January of 2020. Since then all Districts, All-State, and All-Nationals festivals have been remote. The lengthened day on Friday included seven hours of rehearsal plus a concert in the evening.
“It was a refreshing experience to be able to play in a band of that caliber,” said junior Cooper Swartzentruber, who has participated in multiple remote music honors festivals since the start of the pandemic, including Districts, All-States, and Jazz All-States. “To be able to hear everything in-person rather than on zoom was a big relief.”
“Like many instances throughout this pandemic, we had those ‘is it happening or not happening?’ feelings until the morning of the festival,” said LA Band Director Liz Matta. “The snow storm forecast for the second day added another layer of ‘is the festival going to happen?’ It was a big relief just to get to Camden Hills High School. Although the festival was cut by one day, it was a very comforting and rewarding experience for the students and adults involved. Camden scheduled a teacher workshop day for the Friday of the festival so that the musicians were the only students in the building, which helped it feel safe.”
“The students put in a substantial amount of work outside of school rehearsal time, first to prepare challenging audition music, and then to prepare the repertoire for the festival itself,” said Choir Director Emily Anderson. “It is such an invaluable experience for the students to be to work at such a high level with the top musicians in the district and to be part of something larger than themselves.
“It went much better than I was expecting,” said junior vocalist Izzy Petersen. “Everyone was required to wear masks and was reasonably distanced. It was a little disappointing not being able to check in with anyone from the other groups throughout the day, but we kept super busy so it all flew by pretty quickly.”
