Vocal students set to shine at All-Aroostook Festival
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — More than 220 of Aroostook County’s best middle and high school vocalists will showcase their talents Saturday as the Northern Maine Music Educators Association hosts its annual All-Aroostook Chorus Festival in the Star City.
The concert will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Presque Isle Middle School gymnasium. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for a family (parents and siblings only) not to exceed five tickets.
“There are about 14 school systems from as far south as Sherman up through Fort Kent participating in this year’s festival, and about double that if you count middle schools and high schools separately,” said Jay Nelson, vocal music teacher at PIMS and Presque Isle High School. “The high school chorus features 106 students, while the middle school chorus is made up of 122 students.”
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRESQUE ISLE MIDDLE SCHOOL students participating in Saturday’s All-Aroostook Chorus Festival concert, to be held at PIMS are, from left, front row: Aaron Swanson, Tifini Lee, Tyler Levesque, Stephanie Winslow and Skyler McAtee. Middle row: Grant Bridges, John Morningstar, Olivia Mosher, Everett Zuras, Hannah Chalou and Ian Tuttle. Back row: Greyson Sonntag, Alexandra Michaud, Kellsey Michaud, Nicole Theriault, Tyler Ayotte and Jacob O’Berry. Absent when the photo was taken were Kalena Washington, Abigail Shaw, Kelsy Cyr, Nechelle Dias, Michaela Dube and Jonathan Henderson. The concert will be held at 2 p.m. in the gymnasium.
The program will feature a variety of different songs.
“The middle school chorus will sing four or five selections and then we’ll rotate the high school kids in and they’ll do four to five selections,” said Nelson. “These students were all nominated by their teachers to participate in the festival. We didn’t have an actual audition per say like the band students do though I did have my students sing for me.
“With most schools, you pick the kids you think are the most deserving from your group. The kids in my group are the ones that show the most enthusiasm in chorus and they don’t miss rehearsals, and oftentimes they’ll participate in the after-school groups,” he said. “They show that they really have an interest — and a passion — and obviously they do have talent.”
Nelson said a husband-wife team from the Portland area will serve as the guest conductors for the upcoming festival.
“Matt Murray will be conducting the middle school chorus and Catherine Murray will conduct the high school group,” he said. “I’ve worked with both of these conductors before; they’re two of the best we have going right now in the state of Maine. They’ve picked wonderful programs with varied music. It should be an awesome concert.”
This is the first time, Nelson said, 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.”
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
ALL-AROOSTOOK CHORUS students from Presque Isle High School are, from left, front row: Cameo Madore, Miranda Flannery, Jordan Buckley, Alecia daCruz, Courtney Colligan and Chloe Rossignol. Middle row: Dylan Shaw, John Freeman, Austin Albert, Jay Getman, Kate Campbell, Bethany Beckwith and Christina Hallowell. Back row: Keith Clark, Scott Rhynold, Isaac Michaud and Brenden Goulet. Absent when the photo was taken were Jordyn Shaw and Kristina Lord. The All-Aroostook Chorus Festival concert will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Presque Isle Middle School gymnasium. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for a family (parents and siblings only) not to exceed five tickets.
Nelson encourages county residents to come out and support the vocal students.
“You’ve got this group of students from all over Aroostook County that are passionate about music and love to sing, and you mix that together with guest conductors that come up here with a fresh outlook on music and doing music that may be above and beyond what people would get in a normal chorus, it’s magical what happens when you put that combination together,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
