Eight Grove City College students will be playing in the 76th Annual Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band Festival, held this week on campus.
The festival features some of the best college band musicians from 22 Pennsylvania colleges and universities and concludes with a concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4 in Ketler Auditorium of the Pew Fine Arts Center on campus. Tickets are $10 each and are available at the door.
“This concert is a must-see event. Collegiate honors bands are rare, and this is the best one in the country,” Dr. Andrew Erb, professor of music and director of bands at Grove City College. The Grove City College students involved are:
- Paul Brown ’25, a Music major from Jenison, Mich.
- Liam Cummings ’26, a Music major from Lewisburg, Pa.
- Elizabeth Geer ’26, an Exercise Science major from Columbia Cross Roads, Pa.
- Emily Larson, ’26, an Exercise Science major from Gibsonia, Pa.
- Evan Misejka ’25, a Music major from Tarentum,Pa.
- Elizabetta Pucci ’25, a Music major from Freedom, Pa.
- Emma Roush ’25, a Psychology major from Medina, N.Y.
- Aliyah Shelatz ’25, an Entrepreneurship major from Conneautville, Pa.
“I am so excited for the students who get to have this experience on stage. It is truly not replicable, and they will remember this for the rest of their lives,” said Erb, who played in the ensemble when he was an undergraduate. “I remember the experience like it was yesterday. It is powerful.”
About 120 students are participating this year, with Dr. Onsby Rose, director of Bands at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, serving as guest conductor. The concert will feature four pieces: “When I Consider the Heavens” by Grace Bauer-Dunlap, “Black Horse Troop” by John Philip Sousa, “First Light” by David Maslanka, and Rose’s composition Symphony #1 “Heroes.”
Grove City College is co-hosting the 76th Annual Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band Festival with Geneva College. The College last hosted the festival in 2017. It is the longest running intercollegiate band festival in the country.
For more about Music at Grove City College, visit gcc.edu/music.