Musical medley: Conestoga to host PMEA District 12 orchestra districts for the rst time

For the rst time in history, Conestoga will host the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 12 Orchestra Festival. e festival is set to take place from Jan. 26 –28, 2023 in the Hobson Wagner Memorial Auditorium.

Many hours of planning have gone into this occasion to accommodate the 32 schools competing. Christopher Nation, a music teacher at Conestoga, is hosting the event. Nation helps plan all the logistics in the events including hotels, meals, folders, repertoires and re-auditions. Guest

“It’s a very large, complicated process with a lot of moving parts,” Nation said. “We’ve got to coordinate between us and all of the other host directors, all the schools in District 12 as well as come up with a budget that’s going to work.”

In order to secure a spot in the festival, participants had to submit a video to a panel of judges. ey recorded ve scales and three excerpts, and were given a shortterm preparation excerpt to take the place of sight-reading. e audition pieces were released on Nov. 13, 2022. Videos of the partic- ipants playing were required to be submitted by Nov. 19. e audition process has been conducted online for the past two years because of COVID-19, as opposed to the traditional in-person audition applicants are used to.

“I remember using a few attempts to get the right sound,” sophomore Frank Liu said. “I know a lot of people had technical issues, but for me it went really smoothly, and I think they did a great job with it.”

Some students, like senior Michael Levin, who played clarinet in last year’s festival, are not new to the PMEA districts.

“It’s a really memorable experience,” Levin said. “I remember the rst time I went to my district’s band concert last year. It’s basically taking all the best players in the district. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the all-star game in the NBA — it’s kind of like that, but for all the best high school musicians.” e excitement is not limited to returnees. Sophomore Lauren Wu, who is competing in districts for the rst time, has high hopes for the event.

“I think I’m really excited for the festival in general because I get to meet a lot of people from the area, learn about them and play stu , which is really exciting,” Wu said.

Students who quali ed for districts are required to re-au- dition to qualify for regionals. Judges will listen to a selected excerpt of a piece and combine its score with their score from their previous audition (for districts). is will then determine who moves on to perform in regionals. Levin feels excited to compete in districts but knows there could be more to come.

“(Being selected for districts is) de nitely a big honor that I’m very proud of,” Levin said. “But you know, when you get selected for the district festival, you are obligated to re-audition, and try your luck at regionals and then possibly states so the journey doesn’t end.”