She set a goal and she reached it.
Morgann Davis was recently named the very best flute in her section at the 2003 PMEA All-State Band Festival held earlier this month in Hershey. She received first-chair honors.
“This was a goal that I set a long time ago,” said the bright-smiled Tyrone senior. “I worked hard and played the very best that I could and it all worked out for me. I’m just totally excited about the whole thing.”
Davis’ road to the state festival began in November with her pre-audition for the District 6 Band Festival. At this audition, she placed fifth chair out of 90 flute players in Blair, Bedford, Cambria and Somerset counties.
Her next advancement came when she auditioned at the District Band Festival in January, where she placed second chair out of 12 flutes in her section.
Finally, at the Region III Band Festival, her audition for the state festival earned her first chair.
She was the only Flute I to represent all of Region III, which includes 60 schools in Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Somerset, Centre, Clinton, Clearfield, Mifflin, Huntingdon, Fulton and Juniata counties.
The auditions for the state festival occurred April 9.
“They asked all of the flutes on my part to play the same passages for the songs we were playing,” said Davis. “It was a blind audition so the judges don’t see you and they don’t know who you are. I played through two passages and I was done.”
Davis said the auditions took about 30 minutes for her instrument group, then the participants were given their room assignments. She said she had to wait until the next day to find out how she fared.
“We were in the rehearsal hall and they were calling people up on stage based on where the instruments were seated on the stage,” said Davis. “They were calling them first chair to last chair and I’m used to them calling last chair to first chair, so when they called it, I knew it was first chair, but I wasn’t quite sure I heard them right.”
She said she didn’t go crazy when her name was called.
“I was pretty happy, but I tried to contain myself,” she said. “I didn’t really get excited about it until I called home to tell my mom.”
Davis contained her emotions for the rest of the weekend with her, and dozens of the best high school instrument players, practicing up to the final show, performed Saturday afternoon.
“It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at the festival,” said Davis. “There was less pressure because there was no where to go after that. You didn’t have to worry about advancing to the next level.
“The other thing I enjoyed was meeting all the different people,” she continued. “It was nice being the only person from Tyrone there. If I went with people I knew from Tyrone, I probably would have just hung around them the whole time. This allowed me to meet a whole lot of people that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
Her flute career began when she first started playing in third grade.
“I really don’t even know why I began playing it,” she said. “It just looked interesting.”
Through sixth grade, she continued to play, but going into junior high, she began losing interest.
“I’m not sure why, but I did,” she said. “I then started taking private lessons and with the encouragement from Gerry Roberts (former TAHS band director), I decided to stick with it. I’m glad I did.”
Now, her music career is flourishing. She also plays the piccolo, piano and sings vocals.
“I do a lot with music just because I love it,” she said.
Although she said she doesn’t have any musical influences, she enjoys listening to all types of music, including instrumentals, classical and jazz. She said her favorite musical group is The Dave Matthews Band.
Now, Davis is getting ready for college.
She said she recently attended a college fair, but said it didn’t deter her plans to study at Ohio State University next year, where she plans to study music education and flute performance. For the last few weeks, she had been weighing her choices for higher education as she had offers from Penn State University, Duquesne, Susquehanna University, Michigan and Ithaca.
“I guess the biggest reason I chose Ohio State is because of their music professor (Katherine Borst-Jones),” said Davis. “She’s a great person that I think will be able to help me continue through my music career.”
Davis said although she loves music, she doesn’t believe she would be where she is today if she went to any other high school.
“Here at Tyrone, I learned so much with all my friends around,” said Davis. “All my teachers care about what the students are doing in the school, both academically and outside the classroom. I couldn’t have chosen a better place to get my initial educational experiences.”
