The finest musicians representing high schools across Southeast Alaska will gather in Wrangell for the 2025 Honor Music Festival Oct. 26-28.

More than 100 band and choir students have been selected to participate in the program, including as many as six from Wrangell.

Andre Bardin-Siekawitch, a junior, will be the first chair alto saxophone in the band; freshman Clara Carney will sing second soprano in the choir; sophomore Silje Morse will sing first alto; and senior Clara Edens will be first chair second alto. Junior Bella Ritchie and freshman Stella Buness are second soprano alternates.

Getting to this point has been a process of dedication to practice and growth in musical skill.

K-12 music teacher Tasha Morse said she gives the audition pieces — which have remained constant over the years of Honor Music Festival — to students in the sixth grade, so they can begin working on them. “They are initially a little overwhelmed. All they see is a lot of notes. But I tell them to work on it measure by measure. Do a measure a week, a measure a month.”

When they are in high school, they are eligible to audition for a place in the band or choir. Each applicant records and submits their audition piece. All the school music directors across Southeast hold a listening session, and from the audition recordings select the students for the annual festival.

Morse explained that the selection process works to ensure students from every high school are represented, from Haines to Metlakatla, while also creating balance.

“We couldn’t just have a lot of flutes and one tuba. We have to make sure there will be a balanced sound for the performance pieces.”

This is the 51st Southeast music festival and Morse’s 18th year teaching music in Wrangell. The festival moves around Southeast; last year’s event was in Petersburg.

Selected students have about one month to prepare those pieces for the festival and then congregate at the host community for rehearsals under guest directors.

The guest directors for this year’s program will work to enhance the skills of the wide range of Southeast student musicians.

The band will be led by Erik Leung, the assistant professor of teaching and bands director at Oregon State University.

Kevin Tison teaches choral music at Fountain Valley High School in Orange County, California, and has been named an Orange Couty Arts Educator of the Year.

Both have taught and performed with groups in competition and in international settings.

“This is an opportunity for students to experience playing or singing in a larger band or choir than in their home settings, playing harder music with different directors,” Morse said. “It elevates and expands their own performance. It creates a community working together, while giving students something they have to work toward. At the same time, it demonstrates to the community that we have kids who have the ability to perform at that level, that they can do hard things.”

After a little over two days of rehearsals, the band and choir will perform the Honor Music Festival concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the high school gym. The event is open to the public; there is a $5 admission fee.