Chelmsford Resident Makes History at Nashoba Tech

A Chelmsford resident has become the first student in Nashoba Valley Technical High School history to be chosen to sing in the highly selective Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s Eastern District Senior Festival.

Margaret Mescall, a junior, was one of 128 people invited to audition at Milton High School for the festival. She was then selected as one of 37 to take part.

The Eastern District includes high schools from 30 communities — including Boston.

“It feels so amazing,” said Mescall in a press release. “I didn’t think it went that well at the audition, but that was probably partially nerves. I was setting myself up in case I didn’t get in. I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

For her audition, Mescall, a soprano, had to first perform the scale, then do a sight-reading, in which she had to sing eight measures of random songs, with just 30 seconds to look them over.

Lastly, Mescall had to sing a 60-second solo from the 16th century choral work “My Heart Is Offered Still to You” in a private room with an anonymous judge watching and listening for Mescall’s melodic and rhythmic accuracy.

“The good part about it,” Mescall said, “is that no one was there that I could see. I was just in a room by myself, and I sung from my heart. It was like no one was there to judge you, even though there was.”

Nashoba Tech Music instructor Laura Lamore said she isn’t surprised Mescall was selected for the festival.

“Maggie has a natural opera voice, and she has worked really hard to get to where she is,” Lamore said.

Mescall was previously named to perform MMEA’s Eastern District Junior Festival; she was just one of two students from Nashoba Tech to earn that honor.

She will rehearse for the festival with the other 36 singers on Jan. 8 ahead of the Jan. 9 concert at Boston Lation.

Mescall said any nervousness she had was dispelled by the tough audition.

“I’m not nervous anymore,” said Mescall, who got her start singing in the choir at Chelmsford’s All Saints Episcopal Church 10 years ago. “It’s more excitement now because now I can finally say I got in and there’s no more pressure.

“I know I’m on the same level as everyone else.”

The Eastern District encompasses the cities of Boston, Cambridge,Newton, Quincy, Somerville, Waltham and Watertown, as well as the towns of Acton, Bedford, Boxborough, Brookline, Carlisle, Concord, Dedham, Dover, Framingham, Lincoln, Littleton, Medfield, Millis, Milton, Natick, Needham, Sherborn, Sudbury, Wayland, Wellesley,
Westford, Weston and Westwood.

PHOTO CUTLINE:
Margaret Mescall, a junior from Chelmsford, is the first Nashoba Tech student ever to be selected to sing in the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s Eastern District Senior Festival.