Seneca Valley Instrumental Students Excel at PMEA Festivals

Excellence in music has long been a tradition at In 2012, that tradition continued as numerous students achieved recognition for their instrumental music accomplishments.

Students in the instrumental program recently participated in another successful festival season of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association.

Beginning in January, Seneca Valley played host to bands from PMEA’s District 5, which includes schools in Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.

Seneca Valley had 24 instrumental students participate in the festival, including Connor Thompson, Brittany Huff, Stefany Baron, Alex Bark, Jackie Mortimer, Carly Hogan, Elisa Park, Shelby Underwood, Courtney Goodzinski, Scott McKinney, Matthew Ruwe, Jeremiah Scanlan, Zach Ratkus, Nikko Paserba, Brendan Linton, Josh Zahren, Sam West, Brad Snyder, Kenny Farinelli, Rachael Agnello, Dan Eppler, Emily Bintrim, Erin Sager and Tori DeRiggi.

From District Band, students who placed in the top of each section were selected to move on to Region Band in February at Norwin High School in North Huntingdon.

This band was composed of students from Districts 5 and 1, which includes Allegheny, Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette and Greene counties.

Seneca Valley had 15 students qualify for this festival. The students participating in Region Band were Brittany Huff, Stefany Baron, Alex Bark, Carly Hogan, Elisa Park, Sam West, Rachael Agnello, Dan Eppler, Erin Sager, Tori DeRiggi, Brad Snyder, Kenny Farinelli, Zach Ratkus, Matthew Ruwe and Courtney Goodzinski.

Students who excel at Region Band earned the opportunity to be part of one of the All-State Ensembles, which will be in April in Lancaster as part of the PMEA State Convention.

Students selected from Seneca Valley for participation in All-State Concert Band and Wind Ensemble include Alex Bark, Carly Hogan, Sam West, Matt Ruwe, Dan Eppler and Tori DeRiggi.

Participating in the All-State Jazz Ensemble— which a recorded audition determines—is Brad Snyder on bass trombone and Kenny Farinelli on tenor trombone.

Students from Seneca Valley also had the opportunity to participate in the District 5 Jazz Ensemble Festival, which takes place each year at Slippery Rock University. Selection to the ensembles is based on a live audition.

These students from Seneca Valley participated in the festival in early February: Alex Taylor, Rebecca Danik, Seth Beck, Brady Marburger, Kyle Morgan, Nate Kosinski, Kenny Farinelli, Brad Snyder, Nikko Paserba, Martin Chzanowski, Patrick O’Connor, Kevin Farinelli, Dan Eppler, Rachel Kerr, Jonathan Selling, Richard von Rintelen and Eli Coyle.

Students at also were given the opportunity to audition for the PMEA Junior High Festival, which will be in April in the Mercer School District.

Students had to submit a recording of a required excerpt to be considered for inclusion in the festival.

SVMS had 20 students selected, including Carinne Geil, Meghan Villegas, Alyssa Jo Tice, Sarah Johanknecht, Ariella Meltzer, Allison Love, Julia Scanlon, Even Ritchie, Caitlin de Vries, Dan Singer, Zachary DeDionisio, Sarah Foster, Scotty Poepoe, Lauren Agnello, Alexandra Miller, Nathaniel Fritch, Katie Kolor, Matthew Gorog, Aaron Jackson and Michael Kolor.

-- Information and photo submitted by the Sara Snyder on behalf of . Have news you'd like to share with Patch readers? Email information and photos to Editor Jessica Sinichak at jessica.sinichak@patch.com or visit our .