Six Haines musicians are among the more than 100 band and choir students in Southeast Alaska gathering in Wrangell for the 2025 Honor Music Festival Oct. 26-28.
Sophia Hedden, Brody Ferrin, JC Davis, Maddox Rogers, Wade Lloyd, Bugg Hunter, are at the 51st Southeast music festival, which moves around the region. Last year’s event was in Petersburg.
Selected students have about one month to prepare those pieces for the festival and then congregate at the host community for rehearsals under guest directors.
The guest directors for this year’s program will work to enhance the skills of the wide range of Southeast student musicians.
The band will be led by Erik Leung, the assistant professor of teaching and bands director at Oregon State University.
Kevin Tison teaches choral music at Fountain Valley High School in Orange County, California, and has been named an Orange Couty Arts Educator of the Year.
Both have taught and performed with groups in competition and in international settings.
“This is an opportunity for students to experience playing or singing in a larger band or choir than in their home settings, playing harder music with different directors,” Morse said. “It elevates and expands their own performance. It creates a community working together, while giving students something they have to work toward. At the same time, it demonstrates to the community that we have kids who have the ability to perform at that level, that they can do hard things.”
After a little over two days of rehearsals, the band and choir will perform the Honor Music Festival concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the high school gym. The event is open to the public; there is a $5 admission fee.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by the Wrangell Sentinel. Local information was added by the Chilkat Valley News.
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