April 9, the PAHS Stage Band went to State College to give a performance as part of the campus’s annual two-day Jazz Festival. It performed a total of three songs and the members were then given tips on how to further better themselves by jazz musicians/professors Denis DeBlasio (of the Maynard Ferguson band) and George Rabbai. Later in the evening, they were treated to a performance by the campus’s very own Centre Dimensions, featuring Jacob Shoener, 2015 PAHS graduate, along with DeBlasio and Rabbai.

Arriving at PAHS at around 9 a.m., the members of Stage Band prepared for the two-and-a-half-hour bus trip. After all of the equipment was put on the bus, they departed and arrived at State College around 11:30. Once they arrived, they were escorted to a practice room where they rehearsed one last time before their performance.

Around 1:20, they walked on stage and began their set. At the end of it, DeBlasio came on stage and gave them advice on how to make their performance sound more lively and refined.

Afterwards, they paid a visit to the Berkey Creamery, where they were all treated to ice cream as a reward for their performance.

The band returned to the music building to watch some of the other bands perform and to witness a short three-minute performance by DeBlasio and Rabbai, followed by a Q & A session with some rather amusing commentary from DeBlasio.

“Dixieland?! What’s that? Is that a rash?” said DeBlasio.

After dinner at Champ’s Sports Grill, the band returned to the music building once more to see the final performance of the festival. Centre Dimensions took the stage around 8 p.m. and were periodically joined by DeBlasio and Rabbai, respectively playing revisions of tunes by Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra, as well as originals.

The PAHS Stage Band will be performing as the opening act for the Dave Stahl PA Big Band April 28 in Lebanon, PA.