Here’s a tidbit of fun news for you on a rainy and SNOWY (earlier today anyway!) April Fool’s Day. Mark Kennedy made the paper in Altoona last week during the PMEA festival held there. Congrats, Mark! Here’s the article:
Striking up the band: Infrequent but memorable “musical moments” thrill area students
March 26, 2011 – By Amanda Clegg, Altoona Mirror
Region III Band Festival member Mark Kennedy said he enjoys what he calls “musical moments.”
The moments occur infrequently, happening only when everyone is focused on one particular part of the music and then something “clicks,” he said Friday.
“You get goose bumps,” he said. “It’s like the best thing.”
The State College Area High School senior, who has played the French horn for six years, has participated in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s annual regional band festival for three years.
This year’s festival kicked off Wednesday at Altoona Area High School with 182 regional band students from 48 school districts participating.
This year’s guest director is William Stowman, the music department chairman at Messiah College in Grantham.
The Region III band will perform a concert at 11 a.m. today at the high school.
Some of the band members will go on to the PMEA All-State Festival scheduled for April 14-16 in Hershey and Lancaster. Regional jazz, vocal jazz, chorus, wind ensemble and orchestra groups also perform in the all-state festival.
Kennedy, who also participated in PMEA choir and plans to major in French horn performance and German in college, said he enjoys meeting kids from other school districts during the festivals.
Emily Brumbaugh, 15, an Altoona sophomore who has played the saxophone since fourth grade, said she plans to major in music after high school.
“I love the feeling you get when you’re on stage and the music is flowing, no matter what kind it is,” Brumbaugh said.
Emily Brumbaugh, 15, an Altoona sophomore who has played the saxophone since fourth grade, said she plans to major in music after high school.
The festivals offer students the opportunity to learn from a college professor and with their musical peers, Altoona Area High School Music Director Larry Detwiler said.
When considering the educational crisis brought to light with Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed 2011-12 state budget, Detwiler said like everyone else, people in the arts are concerned. They are also optimistic, he said.
“We know how valuable the arts are to our students and our communities,” he said.
Hopefully, school administrators feel likewise, he said.
Music is a “form of self expression” with its own language, and “just that basic part of your life that completes a person,” he said.
Brumbaugh, who participated in the festival open to sophomores, juniors and seniors for the first time this year, is learning how to compete and deal with not always coming out on top, how to “work harder” and “as a team,” she said.
She may also experience some of those “musical moments” along the way, as well.
“Musical education to me means more than getting to play the instrument,” she said. “It’s the emotion and feeling you put into it.”
