500 musicians head for Houston

April 19, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

HOUSTON - An army of more than 500 musicians from across the state is scheduled to descend on Houston Middle School and Houston High School later this month to compete for top honors in the Region 2/3 Music Festival.

In the past, the event was held at several different locations around the state, most recently in Cordova, which made it difficult and expensive for many schools to attend.

Houston High music director Jennifer Van-Ausdal volunteered to make Houston the permanent home for the annual three-day event. This year's festival will run April 22-24, with a grand-finale concert at Houston Middle on Sunday, April 24, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. The Sunday concert is free to the public.

"We've been working pretty hard," said Houston Middle activities director Norman Cosgrove. "It's a huge thing to take on this time of year, but if we can pull it off this could be the permanent location."

Due to the lack of housing and food options, student musicians will sleep in school classrooms and gymnasiums and take their meals from the school

cafeterias.

"We're in Houston," Cosgrove said. "There's no McDonald's across the street. We're going to have to feed them breakfast, lunch and dinner."

So what's the point of such a large event?

"Mostly, it's to get the top bands and choirs together and come up with the most talented musicians in the districts," Cosgrove said, adding that he expects 12-14 schools to participate.

Many of the schools are fairly small, and in order to field a band or choir they had to combine high school with middle school students. The only purely middle schools are Houston and Teeland middle schools.

Lindsay Stewart is a senior at Houston High School and a two-year member of the choir. She said she's been practicing with her fellow choir members every school day since January to prepare for the festival.

"It was tiring last year," she said. "It's pretty big and it's hard work but I've learned a lot."

During the competition, judges will evaluate competing bands and choirs to determine the finalists. Among the musical genres included are jazz, choral and patriotic, with most performances taking place at the middle school. The festival-ending grand finale will take place at the middle school gym.

"It's so much fun," Stewart said of the festival. "I want to be a music teacher and this helps a lot with that."

For more information about festival events, people may call Cosgrove at 892-9508.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266, or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.