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School News Week of Nov. 14

3 min read

Upper St. Clair

Several Upper St. Clair High School musicians were selected by competitive audition to participate at upcoming Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 1 band and orchestra festivals.

The PMEA District 1 Honors Orchestra Festival will be held Nov. 20-21 at Fox Chapel Area and Bethel Park high schools. These Upper St. Clair students are scheduled to participate:

Rumaysa Alam, viola; Leona Chen, Violin II; Sophie Chen, Violin II; Miriam Gutensohn, Violin I; Joe Phillips, cello; Isabella Zhang, Violin II.

The PMEA District 1 Honors Band Festival is set for Nov. 19-21 at North Hills High School. Participants from Upper St. Clair are:

Phoebe Chen, Flute I; Lauren Tenney, Clarinet II; Leah Henning, Clarinet III; Susan Liu, clarinet alternate; Gabe Pacella, Trumpet II; Ben Wasson, bass trombone.

The PMEA District 1 Band – West Festival is scheduled for Jan. 27-29 at Duquesne University. Upper St. Clair musicians are:

Phoebe Chen, flute; Eleanor Alford, oboe; Lauren Tenney, Clarinet II; Leah Henning, Clarinet II; Susan Liu, Clarinet II; Gabe Pacella, Trumpet II; Ben Wasson, bass trombone (Trombone III).

PMEA District 1 includes school districts from Allegheny, Fayette, Green, Washington and Westmorland counties. PMEA Region 1 is comprised of PMEA District 1 and District 5, which includes Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.

For the second year in a row, Upper St. Clair High School’s speech and debate team was named one of the Top 100 schools in the National Speech and Debate Association.

For 2020-21, Upper St. Clair ranked 38 out of more than 3,000 schools nationwide, up from No. 50 the previous academic year.

Students earn Honor Society points and degrees based on participation, which contribute to a school’s strength points. The Upper St. Clair team achieved 445 or more strength points last year, earning membership in the NSDA’s 400 Club for the second consecutive year.

Last spring, the team placed second overall at the Pennsylvania High School Speech League state tournament. The team won Speech Sweepstakes and was third in debate.

In June, the won the school’s first National Catholic Forensic League Sweepstakes Award, the Daniel S. Masterson Jr. Award of Excellence in Forensics. The honor is given to the top five schools in the tournament that showed excellence across interpretation, debate and rhetorical events.

During the 2020-2021 school year, 10 Upper St. Clair students earned Academic All-American Awards from the National Speech & Debate Association: 2021 graduates Atharva Barve, Antara Cleetus, Reshma Gudla and Sophia Shi, and this year’s seniors William Bacdayan, Scott Cheung, Saif Durrani, Ammar Kethavath, Rushikesh Kulkarni and Nitish Sharma.

Four Upper St. Clair High School students were selected to perform with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra in a Nov. 13 concert at Heinz Hall: seniors Sophie Chen and Phoebe Chen, and juniors Eleanor Alford and Rebecca Lang.

The youth orchestra is typically comprised of 85 to 90 members, who range in age from 14 to 20, from approximately 30 different schools in the tri-state area. Students are selected to the PYSO by competitive audition.

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