TVHS student attends state music festival
As the school year winds down and students look forward to graduation, Twin Valley High School (TVHS) senior Patrick Skoniczin can reflect on the many musical successes he accomplished in his high school career.
Most recently, he qualified for the second year in a row to participate in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) annual All-State Festival held from April 17 to 20 in Erie. He was the only TVHS student who advanced to states.
To qualify, he won auditions and participated in the maximum number of music festivals that a student can qualify for in a season in all three disciplines - band, chorus and orchestra - at the county, district, regional and state levels.
A student is only allowed to participate in one discipline at the state level even if he or she qualified for all three as Patrick did. Patrick represented TVHS in the concert band, playing the trumpet. He was accompanied to states by his parents, Robert and Cheryl Skoniczin, and TVHS band director Robert Bennett.
"We rehearsed for around two to two and a half days to perform a concert at the end of the festival," Patrick explained. "We also had a guest conductor, Dr. Alfred Watkins. He is a legend in the band world. It was great to work under his baton."
Patrick noted that although the student musicians were from schools throughout the state of Pennsylvania, it was not hard for them to play together while performing in the concert, which featured five musical numbers. "You play your first note, and it sounds like a really good band right from the get-go. We work really well together, and we like to have a lot of fun," he said.
Patrick said that he has become friends with many of the band students after participating musical competitions in middle and high schools. "Some of the people I have been doing festivals with for six or seven years now," he noted. "They are practically as close as some of my friends at Twin Valley. Some of these people will be my colleagues when I go out into the music field later on in life."
In addition to qualifying for states and playing in the concert band, Patrick's original composition, Suite No. 1 for Concert Band, was chosen by the PMEA to be honored as an outstanding selection in the Composition Program. The piece was recorded by the West Chester University (WCU) Wind Ensemble and was showcased during the conference in Erie.
"Usually, for me, it can take anywhere between a month to six months to get something like this completed to the point where I know it's finished," Patrick said, explaining his composing process. "I usually start by coming up with a theme in my head and then I develop that. From there, I sit at the piano and work things out, and then I take my music notation software that I have on my computer and plug in the notes for all the different (instrumental)parts."
He said that hearing his original work played by the WCU musicians was an amazing experience. "It is almost like you are exposing a piece of your own soul to the world," he said. "To hear it be played is one of the greatest feelings in the world. (It means) someone else enjoys what you have to offer."
Patrick started playing trumpet at the age of 8 while a student at the Twin Valley Elementary Center at the suggestion of his father, who is a trumpet instructor at WCU. "My first trumpet was a student horn from West Chester University," he recalled. "I used that trumpet up until two or three years ago. Now I use a more professional horn, which is also one of my dad's."
Patrick says he enjoys a variety of music in his free time, including music from the 1970s and 1980s as well as a bit of country music. "My biggest genre that I listen to is classical music since that is where I get my inspiration because that is what I am surrounded with," he noted.
After graduation, Patrick will attend WCU to major in music education. "I am hoping that once I am done, I will get a job as a music educator and have that to pay for grad school to study music composition, trumpet performance or musical conducting," he shared. "There are a bunch of different routes (I could go)."
In addition to all his musical experiences at TVHS, he said one of his proudest moments was playing taps at a military funeral. "I can't begin to describe how humbling it was and how deeply moving it was," Patrick said. "It was one of the hardest things I have ever had do. I had to keep it together emotionally (while playing) that solemn bugle call."
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