St. Pius X students perform well at music festival

Instrumental and vocal music students from Moberly’s St. Pius X School participated in the Central Methodist University Music Festival on Friday, March 5. Approximately 2,500 student musicians representing a number of Missouri schools attended the event on the CMU campus in Fayette.

The CMU Music Festival afforded students the opportunity to perform before adjudicators who evaluated their performances, made constructive criticisms, and, ultimately, assigned ratings of I [Superior], II {Excellent], III {Good], IV {Fair], or V [Weak].

The St. Pius X School 7/8th Grade Band received an overall I rating from each member of a three judge panel for a cumulative rating of I [Superior].  The band performed “Two English Dances” and “Two Chinese Folk Songs,” both arranged by John O’ Reilly.  The St. Pius X Girls’ Choir also received a I ratings from each member of their judging panel, and an overall rating of I.  They performed Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus,” and a Spiritual entitled “Shine On Me.”

The Boy’s Choir received an evaluative rating of II [Excellent] for their performance of Teodoro Cottrau’s “Santa Lucia,” and “Joshua.”

Ratings for St. Pius X School ensemble and solo events were:

I [Superior]:

       Clarinet Trio [Hannah Welker, Abby Sago, Brittany Kroner]

       Flute Solo [Abby Fawks]

       Piano Solo Amanda Washam]

       Flute Duet [Abby Fawks, Elizabeth Tustison]

       Piano Solo [Sophia Faiella]

       Flute Solo [Elizabeth Tustison]

       Snare Drum Solo [Graham Williams]

       Trombone Solo [Mitch Schumann]

II+ {Excellent]:

       Low Brass Trio [Mitch Schumann, Andrew Weis, Jordan Aulbur]

II {Excellent]:

       Piano Solo [Dayton Hammes]

       Clarinet Duet [Brooke Reynolds, Alaina Nichols]

Marcia Schmidt served as piano accompanist for the solo and ensemble groups.  The piano students’ instructor is Amari O’Donnell.

Paul Copenhaver is the St. Pius X band director, and Reva Neeb is the choir director.