TAHS Sends Eight Vocalists to PMEA District Chorus

The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association sponsors the county, district, regional and state choral festivals each year.

PMEA.com

The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association sponsors the county, district, regional and state choral festivals each year.

Tyrone High School has long had a reputation of producing fantastic vocalists, and 2019 is no exception.

Ten TAHS students went to Chestnut Ridge to compete against students from across the region to snag a spot on the list of students competing at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) District Chorus, and eight of these students will be doing just that.

I am very proud of how everybody did and I am super excited to have gotten first chair. I hope to move onto the Regional and State festivals later in the year

— Brent McNeel

Tyrone High School students from all voice parts will compete at districts to earn their place on the roster for Regional Chorus later in the school year.

The 2019 qualifiers for districts are as follows:

  • Soprano: Lindsey Walk, Isabella Rhoades
  • Alto: Alexis Umholtz
  • Tenor: Tyler Beckwith, Nicholas Delbaggio
  • Bass: Ryan Patterson, Brent McNeel, Nicholas Vasbinder

Before being selected to move onto district chorus, a student must first make it through a pre-audition or “pre-auds,” as many of the students call it.

This event involves learning a selected song and mastering several different categories of quality in order to earn points. Some of these categories include diction, tempo, and dynamics. Once the judging and scoring are completed, only 23 members of every voice part will move onto the festival later in the year.

Three Tyrone students placed in the top 10 of their voice parts, and one earned the honor of being named first chair.

Senior Brent McNeel placed in the first in the Bass I section.

Nicholas Vasbinder who placed seventh  as a Bass I, and Nicholas Delbaggio who placed eighth as a Tenor II.

“I am very proud of how everybody did and I am super excited to have gotten first chair. I hope to move onto the Regional and State festivals later in the year,” said senior Brent McNeel.

Once selected to go to districts, vocalists receive a folder’s worth of music. Instead of a single song, they must practice and master this entire folder before the festival.

On the first day of the two-day-long event, 23 members of each voice part will compete once again to earn the highest possible score in order to move onto the regional chorus festival.

The audition process involves taking a random pair of the numerous pieces of music that are given to the student and judging them on specific selected parts of those songs. The judging process is the same, except that points are harder to score and the competition is much more fierce.

We wish all of our TAHS representatives the best of luck with their auditions at the upcoming festivals this winter and beyond.