The Schuylkill County Band Festival takes place every year and it highlights the best musicians in the county. With a select auditioning process, only a few get in every year based on their performance skills on their instrument. This year, the concert was held at Schuylkill Haven High School and it was conducted by Carole Lutte.

If students are lucky and talented enough after the county level, they move into the district and state levels of bands. The only band member to make it to the PMEA District 10 band Festival was one of our clarinet players, Ava Orlowsky.

County Band takes three days to rehearse with musicians you may or may not have played with before and a guest conductor to highlight your precision with music. Some of the songs played were Circus Bee, Incidental Suite, and Medias Res. This year, PAHS musicians did very good with their chair auditions. Junior Cole Hoak got first chair saxophone and junior Jackie Robinson got first chair baritone. All other musicians either followed with second chair or weren’t far from it.

“It was really fun being able to play more challenging music. I love to challenge myself because it makes me a better musician. It was also amazing playing with such a talented ensemble. Our concert literally sounded better than some professional recordings. I’m really grateful I was able to experience participating with some of the best musicians in our district,” Junior Ava Orlowsky said.

“County Band was a really great experience. It’s always a good time being able to see some old friends from different schools and also meet some new ones. It’s also really cool to see a group of people get together to learn and perform a concert in a span of only three days,” Junior Tyler Sibbett said.