Lampeter-Strasburg (L-S) High School hosted some of the area's top high school musicians during the District 7 South Band Festival on Jan. 24 and 25.

Musicians and band directors representing 38 schools in Lancaster, York, and Adams counties participated in the two-day festival, which culminated with a concert on Saturday afternoon, led by guest conductor Tonya Mitchell-Spradlin, a director of wind band studies and assistant professor of music at Penn State University.

L-S band director Larry Royer, who has been teaching for 31 years, the last 22 also as band director, said the school has hosted the district orchestra in 2019 and all-state groups, but this is the first time it has hosted the District 7 South Band Festival.

"It's always a good thing to do," said Royer, a 1990 Lampeter-Strasburg graduate. "It lets people see what we have and see our facilities, what we offer and how we support music."

School band directors held a business meeting during the Friday of the festival and judged auditions of the 154 band members who were vying to move to the next level. The state is divided into 12 districts and then six regions.

Band rehearsal was held Friday afternoon and again Saturday morning leading up to the concert.

Royer said the musicians first auditioned for the festival back in December. "They learn and perform some pretty high-level repertoire to get into this group," Royer said. "Then to move into the next group, they audition on material from this concert."

The Lampeter-Strasburg High School musicians who qualified for the festival were Maya Coon, bass clarinet; Katerina Geiter, clarinet; Rosalie Glick, horn; Isabel Henry, oboe; Sophia Leister, flute; Elizabeth Rhinier, tuba; Alex Ruhl, trumpet; Katie Sanborn, flute; and Cole Shehan, trumpet.

"I think it's great to be exposed to this," Royer said. "It's not too much about the competition for me. It's seeing other kids do what they do, and they come together and make a product is really outstanding. To be exposed to that and hopefully bring some of that back here to our program is always really good."

Hempfield High School was represented by Ella Astree, bassoon; Amalia Gelbart, oboe; Carter Guengerich, percussion; Noelle Hooper, flute; Spencer Stein, baritone; Lii Stephens, horn; Colin Towbridge, bari sax; Jude Valle, tuba; and Sophia Wilson, oboe.

"I think there are two things about the experience that are really cool," Hempfield band director Matt Ceresini said. "The first thing is the kids really enjoy meeting the other kids. And often kids who make this as a freshman or sophomore will make the festival multiple years, so they get to reconnect with those kids, but infrequently. It's a cool way to check in on what is going on other places. And the other thing is, musically, the groups are always outstanding. It gives them a different level of musicianship. In our ensembles, they're serving as leaders almost all the time. Here, everybody is of that level."

The experience gained by band members at the festival improves the quality of the entire band. "One of the things we say in our band is there are a lot of ways to be great," said Ceresini. "One of the things we do, is when students come back, we ask them to share something they learned that we don't do that we could incorporate. It could be something the conductors do, something they pick up from other students. There are a lot of great ways to do things."

Solanco High School was represented by sophomores Benjamin Ginter, clarinet, and Mackenzie Landis, flute.

"They are both so accomplished even though they're so young," Solanco band director Scott Weyman said. "They've made it to the district PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) level, and then they got the opportunity to reaudition for a chance to go to regionals, on the way to all-states potentially. So for them, it's a big step in their development. It's a very competitive process. Even making it to the district ensemble is quite a feather in your cap. The future looks really bright for them."

Penn Manor High School musicians Jordan Chen, flute; Myra Musser, flute; and Sandra Walker, horn, also participated in the festival.