MAHANOY CITY — Many of the best of the best student musicians in Schuylkill County took to the stage Saturday in the 43rd annual Schuylkill County Band Festival hosted by the Mahanoy Area School District.
Musicians from the 13 school districts in the county gathered in the school auditorium for the annual gathering of musical talent, with 119 students taking the stage.
The guest conductor was Christopher J. Heffner, an associate professor of music and director of bands at Lebanon Valley College. The host director was Mahanoy Area director of bands Allison Kline.
The annual festival began in 1975 and was held at Tamaqua Area, and each year it is held at another school. Blue Mountain hosted the concert in 2017. The last time it was at Mahanoy Area was 2004.
Before the concert, Kline spoke about the background of the event.
“It consists of students of all the 13 county high schools. They auditioned for the festival in November, and then we come together in February and March each year,” Kline said. “They (students) have been here since Thursday evening, all day Friday, though we did lose three hours yesterday due to the snow, and then they came in nine o’clock this morning.”
Kline said Heffner chose the repertoire of music, which was forwarded to Kline and distributed to county band directors.
“We work with our individual students between November and now to prepare them,” Kline said.
Band directors from other schools were in attendance as part of the audience. Shenandoah Valley band director John P. Shoener said there were eight musicians from the high school. This was his first time as band director involved with the festival, but he has experience with it from when he was at Pottsville Area High School.
“I was in it four years when I was at Pottsville. I played trumpet,” Shoener said. “By being on the director side, it’s cool to see the inner workings of the organization, doing reauditions and more. It’s cool to see how it all comes together from the adult side.”
Mahanoy Area Superintendent Joie L. Green welcomed everyone and praised the students on stage for the work they do to prepare for such concert events.
“I know you, as parents, know how much work these students put into their music, as well as other activities,” Green said. “I know how hard they have to work with all the things that they do throughout the day, along with keeping up their academics. I want you to know that music is a very important thing in people’s lives, and for the students up here, music can never be taken away from them. Once they learn that instrument, they can pick it up at any time and start playing.”
After the playing of the national anthem and a march directed by Kline, she said, “I’m sure that I speak on behalf of our entire district in saying it has been a pleasure to host your students for the past three days. The young men and women that you see on the stage this afternoon exemplify many outstanding qualities, such as leadership, integrity, class, dedication and musicianship, just to name a few. Because of this, you are in for a phenomenal performance, and you should all be proud of their accomplishments.”
Kline introduced Heffner with his background in music. After directing a song, he spoke to the audience, which filled the auditorium.
“I’m very excited to be here and to work with these young musicians on stage,” Heffner said. “We had a great three days. They were super hard workers and we had a wonderful time.”
Before the final song, Kline announced the annual scholarship.
“Each year, the county Band Directors Association chooses one student or multiple students from the ensemble to be awarded a scholarship of $500 to further their education in a field of music,” Kline said, announcing Andrew Dickinson, Williams Valley, as the recipient.
The concert finished with a performance of “Kirkpatrick’s Muse” by Jay Bocook.
Before the band started, Heffner said, “Thanks again to Allie Kline for the invitation. I had a wonderful time and students on stage really stepped up, given the delay yesterday. We didn’t alter anything and still programmed everything that I had planned to program, so that’s a big deal and they did an amazing job.”
In addition to the above-mentioned high schools, other participating high schools were Blue Mountain, Marian, Minersville Area, Nativity BVM, North Schuylkill, Pine Grove Area, Schuylkill Haven Area and Tri-Valley.
Contact the writer; jusalis@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6023