A Note-able Win for Lincoln Park

Senior music major Abigail Beadle is the first LP student since 2009 to be named First Chair Soprano at the PMEA District 5 Chorus. She will now advance to the regional competition in February.

As the beginning of a new semester is starting here at Lincoln Park, the Music Department is celebrating a new success story.

Senior music major Abigail Beadle has placed First Chair Soprano l out of 23 students in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) District 5 Chorus. This award hasn’t been achieved by an LP student since 2009.

The PMEA Chorus is an annual festival which aims to promote the musical development of students from across the state. Students are blindly scored in five different categories by various judges, and the student with the highest score gets to advance further.

Beadle received her sheet music in mid-November, and had about a month and a half to practice and prepare. For Beadle, her process consisted of repetition after repetition.

“I kind of forgot about it for a little bit, so during winter break, I was like, okay, my folder is collecting dust. I should probably look at these songs,” Beadle said. “So I practiced for four hours a day for two weeks straight. And I was pretty much memorized after like the first week.”

Dr. Marissa Ulmer, music instructor and the director of the Lincoln Park Women’s Choir, helped Beadle with her journey to Districts.

“She knew that she was in, [in] about mid-November,” said Dr. Ulmer. Beadle started practicing on her own, “and then I, of course, worked with her a couple times between that point and the audition, which was in early January,” Dr. Ulmer added.

Dr. Marissa Ulmer, the head of LP's Women's Choir, helped Beadle prepare for her successful solo at the PMEA competition.

Beadle had the chance to go to the PMEA District 5 Chorus last year. She made it to the honors course, but she shared how this time, it would be different.

Beadle said, “I really wanted to make it into regions more than I did last year, because this is my last year to even try. So I literally, like, practiced so much. When I wasn't practicing, I was listening to the songs and hearing my part.”

On February 19-21, Beadle will advance to Region l Chorus, where she then hopes to make it to States.

Dr. Ulmer shared what she expects the next few weeks to look like in preparation for Regions.

“This festival is the most practiced festival out of all of the festivals in a year, because this one determines who goes to State Chorus,” she said. “[Abby] is well aware that she's gonna have to work really hard and prepare really hard for this particular auditioning festival.”

Besides the challenge of competing, there's another reason Beadle is looking forward to the Regions.

“I'm pretty excited because we get to sing in a cathedral and have an organ play with us,” shared Beadle with a smile on her face. “So basically the same thing for Districts, but just with new music.”

Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School is a tuition-free public charter school located in Midland, PA, and open to all Pennsylvania families. Students grades 7-12 are bused from nearly 90 different school districts to study the arts concentration of their choice: theatre, writing and publishing, media arts, health science and the arts, music, dance, and pre-law and the arts.

For more information, visit lppacs.org or contact: admissions@lppacs.org