On Monday, January 30, 2023, Academy of Holy Angels (AHA) hosted the 2023 Tri-Metro Fine Arts Festival.
The all-day event brought together over 300 students from the ten schools in the Tri-Metro Conference, including Academy of Holy Angels, Brooklyn Center High School, Columbia Heights High School, Convent of the Visitation School, Cooper High School, De LaSalle High School, Fridley High School, Kennedy High School, Richfield High School, and St. Anthony Village High School. The intention of the educational experience was for selected students to participate in a full day of interactive fine arts and/or music sessions based on their interest areas. These sessions were led by local experts of their respective fields.
The event was separated into fine arts sessions and musical sessions. For the fine arts,
each school selected five students to participate in art-making workshops led by visiting expert artists Jamie Kubat and Patrick Price. Ms. Kubat is a printmaker and bookmaker, and Mr. Price is a sculptor. The art students had one workshop in the morning, another workshop in the afternoon, and received instruction from both artists throughout the day.
For the musical sessions, students were nominated by their school's respective music directors to participate in the Festival, earning them All Conference recognition. Combined, the group resulted in an 80-voice choir, an 80-piece band, and an 80-piece orchestra. Students received their music in advance in order to prepare, and at the Festival, they met in their ensembles with an expert clinician. The visiting clinicians were Ms. Chi-Chi Lin Bestmann (orchestra), Dr. Stephen Kingsury (choir), and Dr. Melanie Brooks (band).
Peter Dysart, AHA's band director, served as co-host for the Festival. He shared, "This is a great experience for our students. It provided them the opportunity to perform with a much larger, more complete ensemble. The music they learned and performed is more challenging than our typical repertoire, and this event allowed them to interact with their peers from other schools who have similar talents and interests. All in all, it was a great day."
The event culminated with the full music ensemble of the 240+ choir, band, and orchestra students performing a public concert in the Academy of Holy Angels gymnasium that evening.