WJHS singers participate in music festival

Post date: Mar 21, 2018 6:36:19 PM

Thirteen Wells Junior High School students participated in the Southern Maine Middle School Honors Festival for 7th and 8th-grade students on March 2nd and 3rd at South Portland High School. Students from about a dozen middle schools participated in this annual event that highlights talented junior high singers. This festival for 6th-grade singers and band members was held the following week.

Those who want to attend first audition in October. The top scores in the auditions are accepted to sing in either the Soprano, Alto, or Baritone section. Near the end of the year they are provided music so that they can begin working with their music teachers to learn and practice the parts that they will be performing at the festival.

When all the students come together on the festival’s first day, they team up with a guest conductor and accompanist to perfect the music. At this time they also learn some new musical techniques. On the following day, they perform in public before a large audience with a concert band.

“The students most enjoy being with other like-minded students who have a passion and a talent for music,” commented WJHS music teacher and choral director Katie Mercier. “Being able to work together with other singers who have similar goals, ambitions, and talents is an extremely rewarding experience.” According to Mercier, students learn “…a wealth of vocal techniques that they could bring back to use in their musical careers moving forward.”

Those from WJHS who attended included (in alphabetical order) Delia Bailey, Isabella Bazata, Lucy Breton, Anavi Curtiss, Gretchen Graffam, Riley Hansen, Evyn Lally, Jackson Meagher, Aaron Patnaude, Hunter Roberts, Alaina Stivaletta, Tamia Tomlinson and Tiffany Vevmany.

WJHS students who performed in the Southern Maine Middle School Honors Festival for 2018. In the back row (l to r) is Hunter Roberts, Aaron Patnaude, Tamia Tomlinson, Gretchen Graffam, Delia Bailey, and Riley Hansen. In the front row (l to r) is Jackson Meagher, Anavi Curtiss, Tiffany Vevmany, Isabella Bazata, Alaina Stivaletta, and Lucy Breton