CU-Mansfield welcomes 70 high school students for Mountaineer Choral Festival
Mansfield, PA (10/28/2026) — Seventy high school students traveled to Commonwealth University-Mansfield to participate in the Mountaineer Choral Festival on Friday, Oct. 23.
Students in grades 9 through 12, representing six high schools across Pennsylvania and New York, joined students from the Mansfield Concert Choir for an immersive day of music education and performance.
The festival was organized and led by student members of the Mansfield American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Student Chapter, with junior Ethan Hinshaw serving as Festival chair.
"This festival has been at the front of my mind for many months, and seeing it was everything I dreamed of," explained Hinshaw. "It took a lot of independent hard work and planning, but it was our Mansfield music community that helped it come together.
"The Mansfield Concert Choir showed these talented young musicians what it means to be a Mountaineer by welcoming them in spirit and in song."
For the organizers, who are primarily music education majors at Mansfield, the hands-on experience of planning, organizing, and executing a large-scale regional festival serves as an invaluable professional development opportunity as they prepare to enter the education workforce.
"It's a really wonderful learning experience for our students to learn how to plan, organize, and execute a choral festival," explained Dr. Patrick Tatman, Mansfield Director of Choral Activities. "It will really set them up for success when they enter the music education workforce in a few short years."
For more information on the music program at Commonwealth University-Mansfield, visit commonwealthu.edu.
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