HHS Students to Perform at 2013 NAfME All Eastern Honors Ensembles at Bushnell Center for Performing Arts

Members of the the Howell High School (HHS) Chorus will be among 780 of the most musically talented high school students in the United States to perform in the 2013 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) All Eastern Honors Ensembles, April 4th through April 7th in Hartford, Connecticut.

Members of the Howell High School Chorus have broken a 45 year old HHS record by receiving eight nominations into the All Eastern Honors Chorus and four acceptances. The All Eastern Honors Chorus is selected from students who place in the top 10% of their state auditions. Auditions are later compared to other 11th and 12th grade students from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and Department of Defense schools in Europe. The students compete in categories that include orchestra, band, and Chorus. Students have only one opportunity in their four years of high school to audition for this prestigious group.

The following Howell High School students placed in the top 10% in the state of New Jersey and were invited to apply: Ilana Klein, Aaron Rothman, Nicolette Fino, Marisa Frigoletto, Meghan Smith, Jenna Najjar, Kelsey Seaman, and Lauren Weber. Selected to perform in the All-Eastern Honors are Kelsey Seaman, Jenna Najjar, Lauren Weber, and Meghan Smith. (The aforementioned students are in the photograph above.)

Music Teacher, Regina McAllen will assist the students in preparing remarkably challenging music that they will perform under the leadership of prominent conductors in this biennial event. The students will spend three days rehearsing with one of four conductors in preparation for performances on April 7, 2013.

The NAfME All-Eastern Honors Ensembles, consisting of a concert band, symphony orchestra, mixed chorus, treble voice chorus, and jazz ensemble, are organized by members of the National Association for Music Education. The concert band and symphony orchestra will each have approximately 150 instrumentalists, the jazz ensemble will have 20 instrumentalists, the treble voice chorus will have 120 vocalists, and the mixed chorus will have approximately 350 vocalists. Student participation from each state is determined by a percentage of the total NAfME Eastern Division membership, with no state given less than two percent representation.