Student Musicians Shine at PMEA Auditions

Congratulations to the students who placed in the PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) Honors and District Band!

These four students placed in the top percentage out of the nearly 600 students who auditioned to earn places at both PMEA Honors Band (grades 9-12) and PMEA District Band (grades 10-12):

Vanessa Amayo (flute), Kaleb Amick (horn), Colin Anderson (trombone), Maddie Hanlon (flute).

Justin Herleman (clarinet) qualified for Honors Band as a freshman which is an especially rare achievement!

In addition to the students above, these students also placed well enough to be selected to District Band:

Evelyn Mattie (clarinet), Zach Konieczki (trombone), Ben Cavanaugh (tuba)

In addition to all of those students, another three AHS students placed in the top 10-15 chairs of their instrument family and are on standby as alternates. 

According to Mr. Cory Neville, ASD’s Director of Bands (Grades 7-12), Director of Orchestras (Grades 7-8), and Marching Band Co-Director, having 11 total students from the same school of Avonworth's size place in the top 10-20% of all of the auditioning students is not typical and is objectively outstanding.  Neville says, "Thank you for all your investment in and support of this program--these are tangible positive results of that investment and support, and I'm looking forward to sharing future positive results as these students make their way through the different levels of competition."

Great job to these musicians!