High school students travel for annual music festival in Sitka

Fourteen Wrangell High School students will participate in the annual three-day Southeast Regional Music Festival this week at Sitka High School. The event will feature morning and evening performances that will be livestreamed on the Sitka Fine Arts Camp YouTube channel and via links on the Music Fest website.

Music teacher Tasha Morse, who will accompany her students, described the April 11-13 event as a showcase. High school music groups from across the region, including orchestral, jazz and choir, will perform in various concerts, along with solo and ensemble performances.

Students will also attend afternoon classes as “a way to get feedback from professional musicians,” Morse said.

“Anyone that has something interesting to say or teach about music is given the opportunity to teach something they know about,” she said in an email on April 5.

The festival rotates between different schools in the region.

“Since our choir that is traveling consists of only three students this year, we are combining with the Thunder Mountain, Juneau-Douglas and Craig choirs to make one choir together,” Morse said.

After a dinner break, students will perform in an evening concert.

“Music Fest is really hard to explain to those that have not experienced it,” she added. “You experience music. You listen to what others are doing, you spark your own ideas, you listen to professors of music tell you something you can do to make your group better.”

Morse emphasized the focus is not on competition. “It is music for music’s sake.”

She added that the only thing that comes close to a competition during the festival is when students try to earn a “command performance” at the evening concert. Such performances are selected by adjudicators from the solo and ensemble concerts.

“Last year was Wrangell's first command performance in about 20 years, when Ander Edens took to the stage to sing ‘The Green Eyed Dragon’ by Charles Wolseley. We only have one group performing in the solo/ensemble space, so we will have to see what that brings.”

More information is available at the Music Fest website: https://sites.google.com/view/music-fest-24-sitka/home. The livestreamed concerts will be on the Sitka Fine Arts Camp YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@sfacstreaming3991.