All-County Festival

By 5:45 p.m. Friday, the dense heat was broken up by intermittent breezes, which provided some cool comfort for a group of students in the back of Le Roy Junior-Senior High School.

They weren’t playing baseball or having a picnic, or goofing around at all. Students and music teachers were at the tail end of a three-hour practice in prep for Saturday’s Genesee-Wyoming Music Educators Association All-County chorus and band concerts. The band room doors were wide open, leaking out a steady rhythm of brass, woodwinds and percussion.

This is Kiptyn Cone’s first all-county event, and he’s enjoying it, he said. His favorite performance piece is “Metal Heads,” which, as the name implies, features a lot of heavy metal style and metal sounds, including cowbells and brake drums. A fifth-grader from Le Roy, Kiptyn is a percussionist who really appreciates the full drum set.

“With all the toms and the snare drum and bass drum with the foot pedal and high hat and splendid cymbal,” he said during a quick break.

The 10-year-old is following in his older brother’s footsteps, but he also believes the drums have an important role in a band.

“They’re keeping the beat, kind of the rest of the band depends on the percussion, the drums in particular. And because we’re the ones like, boom, boom, boom, keeping the beat so they know what to follow,” he said, sharing how he feels about Saturday’s concert. “I’m actually not feeling nervous. I feel pretty prepared. I feel like I know my stuff.”

Kiptyn is far from alone in this being his first all-county music festival. With COVID-19 and the shutdown of schools and most everything, the festival was swept up in that as well. Kids missed out on those opportunities for four years.

Dan Klinczar, vice president of the GW Music Educators Association, is not even sure if 10th graders ever had the chance to participate in all-county. The festival involves all school districts in Genesee County, plus Attica from Wyoming County.

“So for most of the students and all the junior high, and all of the elementary, this is their first all-county experience. So they get to work with a guest conductor, and they get to work for a long time. It's a long practice. So it's a really good opportunity for them to make music with other really strong and dedicated musicians across the county, which is the really cool thing,” Klinczar said. “That's the pinnacle of what musicians want to do -- make music with others. “It’s getting together today and tomorrow before the concert. They'll rehearse tomorrow from nine to 1:30 back in the same spot before they do a concert.

"And like I said, it’s a culminating event for them, you know, and this is supposed to be a mountain experience for kids because it's the opportunity for them to make music with others, and see that people across the county and outside of their small little niche of their own school who can make music and have fun together," he said. "And we’ll be awarding a couple of awards tomorrow. “

The John Mikalski Memorial Career Scholarship will be presented to seniors Evan Williams and Jackson Cain, both of Le Roy.

At 18 and about to graduate, Cain is debating which college to attend. It’s an 80-20 split, with Fredonia State College carrying more weight than Nazareth, he said, to pursue a degree in music education. He’s on a career track to teach music and, hopefully, right in his own hometown.

He is eight years older than Kiptyn and every bit as passionate about the percussion section.

“I think, with all the other tonic instruments, like the ones that have the pitches and all that, it's very easy to express yourself. And I liked that. But with something like a snare drum or a drum set, it's more difficult to bring that out. And I think that's really cool that you can, you know, if you hear someone play a snare drum, you're expecting like, oh … military,” he said. “And then if they come out, and they play the solo that's like, oh, wow, I get expression through this, even though it's just one pitch, I still get that story, and I get what is happening. So I think that's really cool. That you can take something almost one dimensional as a snare drum and turn it into something that's like, artistic and beautiful like that.”

He admitted that, at first, he wasn’t looking forward to a three-hour after-school practice. But then there’s something about several strangers coming together to create something brand new together.

“And then just like, instantly, it all comes together, because we're all practiced, and we all know what we're doing. And it's like, wow, it's like, it's just super fun that, off the ground floor, we all have a very strong understanding of the pieces,” he said. “And we really get to hear these, you know, live, and it's like, we get to watch them grow and build, it's really, really cool. I love every bit of it.”

Cain credits music teacher “Mr. N" (Nordhausen), who first taught him in fourth-grade band, has a sense of humor and other similarities that Cain can relate to, and is a fifth and sixth-grade band teacher; and Miss Dotts, “an incredible band teacher” for grades seven through 12.

The future high school graduate also described a pivotal moment that validated what he wanted to do in life. When a band director was out sick, Cain was picked to fill in, and he worked with students in band camp. He taught drumline and how to march, and afterward realized that he helped those kids.

“And even from then on, it's like, it's helped me realize a lot of things about myself, like marching band specifically was one where I realized if I apply myself, I will see the results that I want. If I really work hard, and I really focus on something that, if I'm passionate about it, I'll see the results that I want,” he said. “And then, of course, the no-brainer’s music education, and then, finding that this is a huge passion for me, and I love doing this and … this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to cultivate this experience for other kids.”

Photos by Howard Owens

Elba Central School was alive with the sound of music late Friday afternoon.

No, not Julie Andrews and the captain in the Sound of Music, but vocals and instrumentals from elementary, junior and senior high school students mostly from Genesee County and Attica.

And, after an unwelcome four-year interruption due to pandemic-related snafus, students and organizers were happy to get the show back on the road. The Genesee-Wyoming County Music Association All-County Festival will be performing this weekend.

The all-county elementary chorus, junior high band and senior high chorus was rehearsing Friday, to be continuing on Saturday and capping off all of that musical talent and energy with a concert at 2 p.m. in the school’s auditorium. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Pembroke sixth-grader Brynlee Amend (second photo) plays saxophone and sings, though she’s at the festival with the chorus. She’s been singing “all my life,” the 11-year-old said.

“I got into chorus as soon as I could,” she said with a big grin. “It just brings joy, I believe I have a good voice. I just enjoy it.”

She has put her voice to the test before all-county, including at Genesee County’s Fair talent contest. Brynlee took home two first-place prizes, one for her rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Our Song.” She has a piece of advice for making a song work.

“Sing things you enjoy singing,” she said.

There are four or five songs in the concert, and two of them are in different languages, French and Chinese, she said. The chorus director will help students with the words, Brynlee said, and overall, she’s good at remembering songs.

“I learn music words pretty fast, so hopefully, I’ll memorize them by tomorrow,” she said. “I think it’s going to go really well. My mom, dad, sisters and stepmom are coming, they’re my biggest supporters. It makes me feel happy that they came to see me.”

Stephanie Gietler, president of the G-W Music Association, said the event is "a great learning opportunity" that's outside of the kids' typical school district music program. And gathering them together has been a great experience.

"Oh, it's so nice to hear the kids making music and being with others," Gietler said. "All-county is a great opportunity because it gets the kids to push their limits of learning and gives them another opportunity. A lot of these kids in the instrumental world go audition on a solo. So they work hard, and it's an honor to be selected into All-County."

There are 11 schools and about 250 students involved in the event, she said. 

Musician Sean Pietrzykowski’s (third photo) reasons for choosing tuba might not have been so noble in the beginning — “my sister picked sax, and I wanted to be a little louder” — but he’s glad that he did. The Alexander eighth-grader has excelled with the brass instrument, playing in jazz and concert bands, qualifying for all-state and all-county.

“I really enjoy it, I enjoy the atmosphere,” he said. “It opened a lot for me, it’s one thing I can fall back to.”

A country music fan — George Strait and Riley Green top the list — Sean, 14, has also made solid connections through music with students and his teacher, Dan Klinczar, who’s also vice president of the G-W Music Educators Association.

Rehearsal was going well, and Sean was feeling confident about the final outcome.

“We’re sounding good,” he said.

It was hard to miss Evan Williams (fourth photo) on stage, both from his 6-foot-4-inch stature and tenor vocals. He said that sometimes he wishes he wasn’t quite so tall, as people expect him to have more baritone quality, though it hasn’t seemed to hurt him any.

The Le Roy High School senior has performed in many school musicals, being cast in a lead role as Jean Valjean for this year’s “Les Miserables,” and going to college with a Regents music scholarship.

Evan, 17, hasn’t yet nailed down which college he’ll go to, but his aspirations are concrete: musical theater. Given his upbringing, he really has no other choice. As a toddler, Evan would sit on the sidelines while his parents rehearsed with their band, Exit 27.

“I always saw the performance aspect of it,” Evan said. “In grades seven through 12, I joined the music department, It felt like home.”

He sang a lot in choir, in and out of school, and plays percussion in band. Music is about more than notes on a page, he said. Especially when it comes to his family.

“My dad (Justin Williams) still gigs out on his own solo. He has such an eclectic style, like performing country. And then he'll do some Aerosmith. And then he's just all over the place. But it's really cool. And it's cool to sort of have grown up in that because everyone in Le Roy is like, Le Roy is so small, and they're always like, Oh, I've seen your parents perform,” Evan said. “And then they'll come to see me. Which theater is completely different than what they perform. Choir is completely different from what they perform. And it's like, it's cool that we've got a little melting pot of voices in our family.”

Asking Evan for a favorite music genre wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Even the ones he thought he could rule out were reeled back in when he thought more about it. He would’ve cast away country, but then again, he likes Sam Smith.

“I feel like Sam Smith is not only an incredible performer in the pop industry realm, but I also think the way that they hold themselves as a person and just have always been true to themselves. And I think that's really important to have an industry. Because I think no matter where you end up, people are going to try to put you in a spot that isn't you, and I think it's always very important to just be who you are,” Evan said. “And if it's not working for you, do what's best for you. And I think that that's something that Sam Smith has really grown to do over the years.”

Evan is drawn to New York City and can see himself working there someday, hopefully on Broadway or filming a movie. He and his classmates have enjoyed being able to resume life after COVID and entertain an audience.

“I feel like we're finally coming back to full things after the pandemic, and it's sort of cool to see people fall in love with performance again,” he said. “And I think that that's really cool to be a part of.”

Top Photo of band rehearsal during the All-County Festival Friday at Elba Central School; Brynlee Amend, Sean Pietrzykowski, and Evan Williams,  rehearsal and choir and band groups being led by their music directors. Photos by Howard Owens.