On April 19, senior Kameron Mayhue and Hannah Shumsky traveled to Erie, Pa. to attend the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) All-State Festival. With middle school band director Robert James traveled with Mayhue and Shumsky to Erie to audition for their chair placement. These students previously advanced to Region Band, which is split into two groups; concert band and wind ensemble. Wind ensemble is more selective in their choosings for its players. Both Mayhue and Shumsky made Wind Ensemble, placing eighth Chair after auditions. Mayhue the Trumpet 2 part in the second chair and Shumsky played Clarinet 3, second chair.

On April 20-21, the wind ensemble rehearsed at Mercyhurst University with Colonel John R. Bourgeous, the former director of the United States Marine Band.

“We played five total pieces, including a march and other patriotic pieces, but my favorite piece was ‘Hobbits.’ We played the second and fifth movements, and the woodwind parts were challenging, yet enjoyable to play once I had them down. I played the first movement before for a previous festival, so revisiting the other parts of the piece made this a favorite for me,” Shumsky said.

Other songs included “In Memoriam,” “Sound Off,” and “For the President’s Own,” and were played on April 22 at the Warner Theater.

“The atmosphere was definitely fun and encouraging. We worked together to perform a successful concert, but we definitely had downtime and fun moments. One of my favorites parts was the bus rides, during which one of the students had the aux cord and blasted songs like ‘PMEA March’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ while we were riding around Erie,” Shumsky commented on her experience at the festival.

This is the last year that they can advance or attend the All-State Festival this would be their last PMEA concert. They still have the lovely school concert

“I would absolutely do this all over again. Yes, it takes a lot of time to prepare for these festivals, but it was a true honor to represent Freedom and make friendships and memories at eight of these festivals. PMEA will always hold a special place in my heart, and I will continue to support its mission and the arts as I move on from Freedom,” Shumsky said.

This is also the first time that freedom band director Keith Kovalic had two of his students make the All-State festival in the same year.

“The ending of my time in PMEA is definitely bittersweet, but this festival was an amazing way to close out my competitive musical career. I’ll always look back on my memories and friendships from PMEA, and I’ll even be going to college with people I met in these festivals. So, although my time in PMEA is over, the impact of the festivals will follow me for quite some time,” Shumsky said at her time at PMEA.