BROADALBIN — After a three-year break during the pandemic, the Fulton County Music Educators Association All-County Music Festival is back.
“Everyone is super excited, and we’re ready to get back to it,” said Mike Graves, Broadalbin-Perth’s band teacher.
The festival, started over three decades ago, brings together students from each school districts in Fulton County, along with Wells and OESJ, explained Graves, also the association’s president.
The event includes over 200 music students selected based on teacher recommendations, and scored from the New York State School Music Association Solo Festival.
The county music festival will feature a variety of ensembles and each prepares one traditional tune, one current tune and a third piece in between the styles.
”In each of the county schools, a typical band or chorus has around 40 or 50 kids, and the smaller schools are even smaller,” Graves said. “Balanced instrumentation is something that we’re not always used to or always accessible to. So to be able to have a full, balanced brass section, and woodwind, and percussion, it gives the students a sense of what a real performing ensemble is supposed to sound like.”
The show is Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. in the Margaret Robin Blowers Auditorium at Broadalbin-Perth High School. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door.
This year’s festival will feature performances from the FCMEA Elementary Band, Middle School Chorus and High School Band, as well as the newly added High School A-Capella Ensemble featuring the “Potsdam Pitches,” a performing group from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.
