Students Attend Note-able Band Festival
January 18, 2018
Kennard Dale and Susquehannock jointly hosted the PMEA District 7 Band festival this past weekend.
Seven Susquehannock students attended the festivities, which were held at Kennard Dale on January 12 and 13, attended the festivities with 113 other students from Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York Counties.
Senior Connor Skevington, senior Emma Steinauer, sophomore Lucas Schwanke, senior Alex Bongardt, junior Aaron Gibbs, sophomore Hayden McGarvey, and sophomore DJ Rohrbaugh all auditioned on December 2.
Many students spent months preparing their audition pieces. Band Director Christian Poole had to make sure that his students were prepared.
“The audition process to get into this group is pretty challenging,” said Poole. “Every section has a really hard piece of music they have to prepare – an etude, a solo piece – that’s sort of college level. It’s very rigorous.”
Steinauer says she has been practicing since May.
“We took lessons with [our teacher], and she worked really hard on making sure everything was sounding good, our tone was good, our intonation was good,” said Steinauer
Because hosting the festival is so much work, Kennard Dale and Susquehannock co-hosted the festival, splitting the responsibilities evenly.
“Since we’re dividing it up, our responsibility is taking care of the music. We have to prepare all the folders and get all the music to all the schools, fix any problems with parts and help with interpretation of parts,” said Poole. “We’re also managing the hotel and the overnight facilities for all the members of the band. Kennard Dale’s responsibility is that’s where the festival’s taking place, so they have the onsight facility responsibilities. It’s big.”
For many students, district band is an event they look forward to attending every year. This is Steinauer’s third districts and sophomore Lucas Schwanke’s second.
“[My favorite part is] playing with a bunch of kids who are interested in the same thing you are and have the same goals that you have,” said Schwanke.
Once the students found out that they got into the festival, they had to prepare the music they would be playing at the event. Students were reauditioned upon arrival at the festival on this music to see how prepared they were.
“We literally went out from when we got our music and went right over to [Lucas’s] house and practiced for, like, two hours immediately after,” said Steinauer.
The culminating concert was held on Saturday, January 13 after two days of eight to ten-hour rehearsals.
After the concert, Schwanke and sophomore Hayden McGarvey found out that they had made Region V band to be held February 22-24 at Middletown High School.
“To get into the group… it’s truly an honor,” said Poole of the seven students’ accomplishment.
