80 band students from Cedar Crest Middle School performed at the annual PMEA conference

Nearly 80 sixth, seventh and eighth graders, all from Cedar Crest Middle School's Falcon Ensemble, performed at the annual Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Conference held in Erie this year.

Only 16 ensembles throughout the state, ranging from elementary to collegiate and representing all music disciplines, were selected for the event, with the Falcon Ensemble representing the only middle school band to be selected this year.

"It was hard to explain to the students the scope and sequence. Like, hey, you're going to be performing for all the music teachers in the state of Pennsylvania that want to come check out this concert at the conference," said Jared Daubert, director of bands and orchestras at the middle school. "You can explain that to them, but until you actually go and see it and feel that environment and know you're performing for a lot of important people, it's hard to understand that until you actually experience it."

In Daubert's 22 years in teaching, this is the first time he's had an ensemble selected.

The PMEA Conference was held from April 17-20 this year. The conference draws music educators from across the state for clinics, presentations and live music.

"This combines the best of the best from all three grade levels and they have to audition for it. The audition process, I try not to be exclusive or exclusionary," said Daubert. "One of the reasons we audition is A, sometimes we have more kids audition than I can actually fit in the band room, and B, we want to make sure we secure balanced instrumentation for the group, enough tubas versus flutes and so forth."

Daubert views the Falcon Ensemble as "bonus band" for students seeking additional enrichment.

To Daubert's knowledge, this is the first time that CCMS was chosen to perform at the annual conference, and only the second time that the district has had a band selected to attend, with the last being a chamber orchestra from the high school selected in the mid 2000s.

From 12 to 16 schools are chosen each year for full concerts, and are chosen based on a double-blind audition process. Daubert sent recordings in the spring, and found out they were invited in September.

Another dozen or so smaller ensembles are set up throughout the hallways of the conference, Daubert said.

Another factor is a school's Music Performance Assessment scores, Daubert explained, judged by local university and college band directors. Cornwall-Lebanon School District hosts one every year at the high school that both the high school and middle school bands, along with several other local school bands, participate in.

For the last several years, the Falcon Ensemble has gotten the highest possible scores in their MPAs.

The Falcon Ensemble meets only once a week after school for one hour. Daubert said that they began practicing their performance, which included two middle school level songs and two songs that were oriented more towards a high school level of skill, in December, after finishing their veterans breakfast and senior citizens breakfast performances.

They only rehearsed together about 14 times, Daubert said.

"I got a lot of Facebook messages, a lot of emails, congratulations," Daubert said. "A lot of directors enjoyed it, loved the quality and professionalism of the kids, couldn't believe the music that they were playing, the difficulty of it, at such a high level. A high school director said it's good to know that there's middle school directors out here teaching this the right way."

The 25-minute performance was held in a ballroom at the Bayfront Convention Center to band directors and educators from all over the state.

Their next performance, which Daubert is already busy working on, is the annual CCMS Spring Concert held on May 21 at 7 p.m. The concert is held in the cafetorium in the middle school and is free and open to the public.

The songs performed at the PMEA Conference will be performed at the spring concert.

Daubert thanked parents, teachers, chaperones, administration, board and the booster group Cedar Crest Music Aides in helping to make this once-in-a-lifetime performance happen.

"It was truly a community undertaking to get these kids to be able to even perform at this, so this was something truly special on all levels for the community.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Cedar Crest Middle School students perform at annual PMEA Conference