By Scott Mitchell Johnson
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| Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson Limestone Community School middle-schoolers who participated in the recent All-Aroostook Chorus Festival were Lakeisha St. John, left, and Rebecca Dillenbeck. |
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — The best middle and high school vocalists from Sherman to Fort Kent — and about a dozen school systems in between — put their individual talents together as they performed recently in the annual All-Aroostook Chorus Festival in Presque Isle.
Hosted by the Northern Maine Music Educators Association, the SAD 1 Music Boosters and the SAD 1 Music Department, the concert, which featured more than 220 student vocalists, was held Dec. 3 at the Presque Isle Middle School gymnasium.
Each year the festival features guest conductors. This year the husband-wife team of Matt and Catherine Murray of Gorham worked with the students the morning of and the day before the afternoon concert.
“The kids are really energetic and working hard,” said Matt, who was the guest conductor for the middle school chorus. “We’re rehearsing five songs. Two are Latin pieces, one is in the tradition of the Shoshone Indian tribe, we have a secular ballad, and a gospel piece.
“The students are extremely polite and really well mannered. I feed off their energy,” he said. “I’ve served as a guest conductor several times in the state and a couple times in New Hampshire. This is the only one I’m doing this year. My wife and I actually did the All-Aroostook Chorus Festival a few years ago, but my wife worked with the middle-schoolers and I did the high school; this year it’s the opposite. It’s fun and we enjoy it. Some of my best memories as a student were these types of things … festivals and music camps. I still have lifelong friends that I met at those events, and hopefully they will, too.”
According to Jay Nelson, vocal music teacher at PIMS and Presque Isle High School, this is the first time the festival has been “separated.”
“In past years, the entire festival — with both the bands and choruses all together — has been done during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. We’ve been commenting for 10-15 years about how the numbers are going down and we’re having a harder time getting students out to the festival,” said Nelson. “Last year we decided to try — on a one-year basis — to separate the festival and have a chorus-only festival and a band-only festival.
“What that would allow is for some students to participate in both,” he said. “For example, between my middle and high school, I have 6-8 kids that last year would only be able to participate in either the band or the chorus because it was all the same festival. This year, they have the option of doing both.”
The festival was a first-time experience for Fort Fairfield High School seniors Josh Wortman and Elizabeth Day.
“Last year I was the only guy in my school chorus; this year there are two more, but they’re freshmen so they’re still learning,” said Wortman. “Coming here gives me a better experience of a bigger chorus compared to what we’re used to at home.”
“Between chorus and band it’s always been band, but chorus is a big passion of mine so it’s awesome to be able to do both this year,” Day said. “Here it’s all talented people all in one area so it’s really awesome to be able to work with the most talented people from Aroostook County.”
Songs performed by the All-Aroostook Middle School Chorus included “Festival Sanctus,” “Pie Jesu,” “Ashokan Farewell,” “Shoshone Lovesong” and “River in Judea.” The All-Aroostook High School Chorus sang “Come Travel With Me,” “Gartan Mother’s Lullaby,” “Hallelujah, Amen,” “Prelude to Peace” and “True Light.”
The All-Aroostook Band Festival will be held Jan. 13-14 at the Ashland District School.
