Hen Hud Musicians Have a Great Adventure Indeed

Last Friday, May 30th, the Hendrick Hudson High School Bands and Choruses, led by Benjamin Acrish and Erica Denler, respectively, once again competed in the Music in the Parks festival at Six Flags New England, in western Mass.  Music in the Parks offers music festivals for bands, orchestras, choirs and other student music groups at more than 40 locations throughout the United States with more than 200,000 participants annually. At Friday’s festival, middle and high school groups from all over New England reported to various locales in the park’s vicinity to perform for experienced judges.  Afterwards, they all convened at Six Flags to enjoy the park and participate in an awards ceremony.

Hen Hud competed in the Class AA Division. It comprises high schools with 750 or more students. In our best showing yet, Hen Hud musicians were thrilled to win first place in every single category in which they competed that day for a complete sweep in their division!  Here are the results:

Harmonizers – 1st place, Mixed Choir I, Rating of Superior; Best Overall Chorus for highest score of any chorus competing that day; Treblemakers –  First Place, Women’s Choir, Rating of Superior; Concert Choir – First Place, Mixed Choir II, Rating of Excellent; Wind Ensemble –First Place Concert Band I, Rating of Superior; Best Overall Band for highest score of any band competing that day; Concert Band – First Place Concert Band II, Rating of Excellent.  In addition, the Best Vocal Soloist trophy went to Senior Matthew Marano.

But despite all of these accolades, our students are most proud of the final award they won – the Esprit de Corps award.  According to www.festivalsofmusic.net, the Esprit de Corps award is “presented to students from a school who demonstrated proper social behavior as well as musical behavior/ encouragement. They possess the qualities of highly successful people who are sensitive to the feelings of others and applaud accomplishments no matter if by one’s own school or another school. Evaluation has taken place from arrival at the festival site to the awards presentation. All schools are eligible for this award, but only one group will have the honor of taking this trophy with them back to their school.”

Hen Hud was the recipient of this award last year too, so it has now officially become a source of bragging rights for our kids.  And they earned it!  With the choruses in suits and long dresses and bands in white/black and all black ensembles, the professionalism of their appearance was trumped only by their behavior. They did Hen Hud proud!

Congratulation to Mr. Acrish, Ms. Denler, and all our students who competed, and thank you to the Parents’ Committee on Music for their unwavering support of our music programs.