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Montgomery student attends District Chorus

By Staff | Feb 12, 2013

Montgomery High School junior, Hannah Umpstead, poses with Dr. Anthony Leach prior to this past Saturday's District Chorus concert held at the Community Arts Center.

On Saturday afternoon, February 9th Montgomery High School junior, Hannah Umpstead, performed in the PMEA District 8 Chorus concert at the Community Arts Center. The festival began on Thursday, the 7th and involved three days of intensive choral instruction and songs under the direction of Dr. Anthony T. Leach from Penn State University. This year’s festival was hosted by Brian Barckley and the East Lycoming School District.

Hannah auditioned against several hundred students from District 8 this past October in order to qualify for the festival. There are 40 schools in all who participated in the audition and festival process. Along with Montgomery’s music program, Hannah is also involved in Track and keeps books for the Boy’s Basketball team. She has also participated in Virtuoso, Montgomery High School’s Theatre ensemble.

All of the festival participants were fortunate to work with Penn State professor, Dr. Anthony Leach. Dr. Leach is a professor of music and music education as well as director of the University Choir and Essence of Joy. His choirs have performed at festivals throughout the United States and Canada as well as tours of England, France, Scotland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and South Africa.

The annual festival is always sponsored by the Pennsylvania Music Educators’ Association. The goal of this organization is to advance music education by encouraging excellence in the study, teaching, and making of music.