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Regional Music Festival
By Ellie Hong '11, courtesy of Kent News |
As the School stepped into the year 2010, Kent musicians started bustling with excitement for the Connecticut Northern Region Music Festival. This year, the festival took place on Friday the 15th and Saturday the 16th of January at New Britain High School where all the musical ensembles at Kent were represented. From the band, Ryan Glenn ’12, Sung Min Ha ’10, Ning Lu ’12, and Ju Yong Lee ’12 attended. The Orchestra was represented by Emily Bredemeyer ’10, Tzu-Yin Chi ’11, So Young Park ’11, and Anna Kim ’12. From the choir, singers Betty Cui ’11 and Nora Nadire ’10, performed in the final concert for the festival. These musicians had to undergo a competitive audition process in order to get the opportunity to perform in this prestigious music festival. Some of these students of Kent will, in addition, be in the running for the all-state competition.
Kent School has participated in the Northern Region Music Festival for several years now. Mrs. Hobbs, conductor of the Kent School Orchestra, says that “the students always enjoy the festival and our musicians represent Kent School well.” From participating in the event last year, Betty Cui realized that “it is a very privileged thing to study music at Kent because a lot of public school students do not have the same opportunities as we do here.”
The goal of the festival is to provide students a chance to improve on their personal musical goals through learning from others. Since the students performing at the festival were selected through auditions, students with the most talent and musicality from the region were present. These musicians are very passionate about singing or playing their chosen instrument. Senior violinist, Bredemeyer, recognizes that “It's one thing to practice the part by yourself and a completely different experience altogether playing that part with a group of experienced musicians.” Park hopes that the Kent students attending the festival “will continue what we learned [at the festival] here and make the Kent orchestra and band sound more united and harmonious.”
