RUMFORD — The universal theme from five Mountain Valley High School students was “I learned so much” after they participated in Kennebec Valley Music Educators Association concerts recently.

KVMEA chooses the best musicians and vocalists from 18 high schools from Newport to Rangeley and Belfast to Skowhegan. The five students included vocalists Alexa Fryover, Morgan Gordon, Shannon Santillo and Alexander Witas, as well as trumpet player Andrew Boucher.

The event was an intense weekend of preparation for a choral concert and an instrumental concert. On Friday, the students practiced together from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., then on Saturday they practiced until their concert. In addition, the students traveled each day to and from Waterville High School.

Rob Westerberg, music teacher at York High School, directed the chorus and taught them different techniques. Witas explained, “The choral director was fantastic. Just over the two days, I learned so much. For example, I learned how to properly use breathing techniques, posture and how to shape your voice. Before KV, I had the idea and concepts but they developed over the weekend.”

He continued, “That’s not to say Mr. Prescott hasn’t taught us a lot. He teaches us new stuff all the time but Mr. Westerberg had some different techniques to offer us.” Michael Prescott is the music director at MVHS.

“The director was really good at physically warming up,” added Gordon. “I learned stuff that I haven’t learned in eight years of music. He was so enthusiastic that everyone in the room gave it 100 percent.” In addition to technique, Santillo brought home a new way of thinking about music. “I learned that singing is not only a voice but your personality expressed into notes and music. I learned that you have to make vowels more powerful than anything when you sing a song.”

On the instrumental side, Boucher experienced playing in a large concert band complete with all the woodwind, brass and percussion instruments. Boucher explained, “I experienced a definite challenge because the difficulty of music was higher. Along with that, I met kids from different high schools, so new friendships were established.”

Meeting and working with like-minded students was another common theme among the students. Gordon reflected, “It was really humbling there are so many great voices just in Maine.”

Fryover said, “Everyone at KV was awesome. It was obvious that all the kids there loved music and were serious about it. The songs came out sounding great and the conductor was hilarious.”

The lessons learned at KV carry over back at MVHS chorus and band. “I’ve gotten so much better at singing from my diaphragm which is so helpful when you’re trying to belt out a note, or hold one for what seems like forever,” Fryover explained. “I’ve also gotten better at choosing which style of singing to use for certain songs.”

Boucher added, “KV influenced my playing by setting the bar higher for the difficulty of music. There’s more challenging material out there that I’m able to play.”

According to Santillo, “It has influenced my singing by making me bring out everything that my teacher taught me into how I sing in chorus now. It also made me want to sing a lot more. Now I do things that I wouldn’t have done before, such as singing in the shower, singing in the car and singing at a restaurant when music plays.”