Nearly 100 high school musicians from around Southeast Alaska have been in Petersburg the last couple days, but you’d hardly know it. They’ve been spending almost all their time practicing for the October 22 band and choir concert.
It’s the 50th annual Southeast Honors Music Festival and it’s the first time Petersburg has hosted the event in more than a decade.
Each year guest conductors are invited to guide the musicians toward their final performance. This year Edward Protzman from Portland State University is conducting the band, and Kym Scott from West Virginia University is conducting the choir. Interested band and choir students sent in audition tapes in September. Music directors around the region chose the best of the best, and those students practiced on their own for a few weeks. Then they all come together for 48 hours of intense rehearsal before performing for the public.
KFSK’s Hannah Flor created an audio postcard of the festival. Petersburg’s music director Chelsea Corrao told her she could see the hard work the kids put in as the music came together.
Listen here:
Corrao said the song “Illumination” is pretty much everyone’s favorite, because it’s a challenge, and that makes it exhilarating to play.
The Southeast Honors Music Festival concert is tonight at 7 p.m. in the high school gym. Tickets are $5. The performance can also be live-streamed for free at NFHSnetwork.com.
And a note of disclosure, student Eleanor Kandoll is a volunteer at KFSK.
