Credit: Kidsday staff artist / Casey Chung, Wheatley Heights

I was nominated to be in SCMEA, the Suffolk County Music Educators’ Association. To get in, you need to be nominated by your music teacher. You usually also need to have done a performance for the New York State School Music Association to get in. You do not have to be nominated to do NYSSMA. Anyone who practices can participate. I love music, and I play the violin and clarinet, but I was chosen for voice.

SCMEA organizes All-County Music Festivals. There are three things to get nominated for: chorus, band and orchestra. I did chorus. SCMEA is for grades five to 10. This school year, the rehearsals are in March at Port Jefferson High School. The concert will be on March 10 at Southampton High School. Besides being a great program, it let me meet a lot of nice kids from other schools who share the same music interests as me.

We met three times to rehearse for the concert. For the concert, girls have to wear a white shirt, black skirt and black flat shoes. Boys needed to wear a white shirt, black pants and black shoes. At SCMEA we met at Mount Sinai High School. We rehearsed in a large auditorium. When we had lunch, we could go to the stand that sold hoodies, shirts and stuffed rams. Each year the stuffed animal changes — it is the mascot for SCMEA. Last year it was a ram, another year, it was a walrus.

Brittany Crosser’s fifth- and sixth-grade class, Oysterponds Elementary School, Orient

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