| Huntingdon--Jordan Canner |
2010-2011 Huntingdon County Report
Huntingdon Area: Nin Hiles
will be hosting PMEA Region III Chorus this year with guest
conductor Russ Shelley of Juniata College. The
dates for that festival are February 23-26 with the concert on
the 26th at 11:00AM.
Joe Kerestan has retired as the elementary band director and
Ryan Knepp and Andrea Croyle, the elementary music teachers, are
now teaching band in their respective buildings in addition to
their general music duties.
We will be hosting our annual Indoor Percussion and Jazz
Festival on Saturday, March 12.
On a personal note, High School Band Director Jordan Canner and
his wife, Middle School Band/Choir/Music teacher Emily Canner
are expecting their first child in June!
Juniata Valley: Renovations on
the Jr. / Sr. High School are finally finished!!!
Eileen Mitchell will be hosting the Huntingdon County Chorus
Festival on November 18-19 with guest conductor Russ Shelley.
Matt Shervey will be hosting the High School Band and Junior
High School Band festivals this year. The High School County
Band festival will be guest conducted by Dr. Peter Haberman from
the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire and held January 26-28.
Concert will be Friday, January 28, at 7:00 PM
Elementary music teacher Susan Bilich and her husband John welcomed their second child on May 14, a son named Jaxson Robert.
Mount Union: Renovations are still underway at the Jr./Sr. High School but should be finished… eventually.
Elementary school music teacher Jeff
Puhala and his wife had a baby this summer! Stella Marie Puhala
was born on July 2nd. They had her at home and Jeff helped
deliver her!
The elementary general music program has been rapidly
expanding. We have received $11,100 in grants to buy musical
instruments which have included a variety of Studio 49 Orff
instruments and a set of African drums that were shipped from
Ghana. We include African drumming in both the 5th and
6th-grade curriculums and added guitar instruction to the
6th-grade curriculum a few years ago. All of our music rooms
are outfitted with a state-of-the-art SMARTboard with all the
accessories. We also have two new Roland i7 Digital Intelligent
pianos that replaced two of three acoustic models circa 1950.
We have one more to try and replace yet.
Southern Huntingdon County: At Southern Huntingdon, the football field’s wooden bleachers (often referred to as “a lawsuit waiting to happen”) are in the process of being replaced by new, aluminum bleachers. Because this project could not be completed in time for the beginning of September (or even October), the Rocket Marching Band has had 7 consecutive away games so far this season. With an expected completion date of Oct. 15th, it is hoped that the last two games of the season can be played at home.