Hoosick Falls Central School District

The Rensselaer County School Music Association (RCSMA) has two Music Festivals every year, currently scheduled for November 2025 and February 2026. The performing groups include wonderfully talented students from most districts in Rensselaer County. This year, the first All-County Festival on November 6 & 8, 2025, will be hosted at Hoosick Falls Central School. Together, the teachers of the Department of Music, the Performing Arts Council, the PTA, the custodial team, the cafeteria team, and the students of Hoosick Falls High School will manage the many aspects of this celebratory event. This festival will feature four performing groups: Elementary Chorus (grades 5-6), Junior Band (grades 7-9), Senior Chorus (grades 10-12), and Jazz Band. 

Representing Hoosick Falls in the All-County Junior Band are seven of Mr. Rob Allen’s students: Michael Allen (9th) on Percussion, David Beishline (9th) on Bass Clarinet, Ludmila Belyaeva (9th) on Flute, Benjamin Brown (8th) on Alto Sax, Gretta Rowlands (8th) on Trombone, Kate Sparks (8th) on Trombone, and Makayla Wiggins (9th) on Clarinet. Performing in this year's All-County Jazz Band (made up of only 18 high school total students) are two of Allen’s students: Junior Joshua Allen on Trumpet and Junior Terry Kuebler on Tenor Saxophone. Eleven of Dr. Ambigay Yudkoff’s Senior Chorus members have been selected to represent our school in the RCSMA Senior Chorus at the All-County Festival. They are: Sopranos Chyah Rhoden and Abigail Weeden; Altos Mya Wiggins, Karalina Hastings, Kaitlyn Baker, and Frances Gardner; Tenor Grady Rowlands; Basses Jack Mallory, Mason Amodeo-Duket, Shane Hatlee, and Ethan McMahon. 

Another highly competitive festival is the Area All-State Festival (with 21 schools participating), which will be held at Proctors on November 21-22, 2025. HFCS will be sending six students to Area All-State - the most in recent history. Three of Yudkoff’s students were selected to perform in the Area All-State Mixed Chorus, based on their NYSSMA scores from May 2025: Sophomore Grady Rowlands, Senior Shane Hatlee, and Senior Chyah Rhoden. 

Three of Allen’s students were also chosen for Area All-State: Senior Karalina Hastings on Clarinet, Senior Wyatt Hall on Percussion, and Junior Joshua Allen on Trumpet. To be eligible for selection, these students all performed "All-State" level solos last year at the NYSSMA Solo Festival (in the case of Wyatt, he performed 2 percussion "All-State" level solos). Instrumental solos of this difficulty tend to be 6 to 8 minutes in length, often with multiple movements, and showcase a wide range of skills and complexity. They are also representative of collegiate-level difficulty. Selection into Area All-State comes from a pool of students that includes 9 different counties in the Capital Region, with every single school on the same playing field, no matter the size. These three students bring the total number of HFCS instrumental students to make the Area All-State festival over the past quarter-century to 14 total students. Karalina Hastings becomes only the 5th instrumental student to make the festival in consecutive years in the same 25-year period.  

These are incredibly talented and hardworking students in music who are so deserving of these opportunities. All of these accomplishments are worthy of recognition and a great demonstration of these incredible students, their hard work, and their dedication. It is also a direct result of the support these students receive from teachers, administration, and community, and their complete music education from Pre-K up through high school.  

Submitted by Dr. Ambigay Yudkoff &  Mr. Robert Allen, Photo by HFCSD Communications

Area All-State Students in the photo are: Grady Rowlands, Shane Hatlee, Chyah Rhoden, Karalina Hastings, Wyatt Hall,  and Joshua Allen.