Whitman-Hanson Regional High School will host a regional music festival May 2 and 3.

The junior Southeastern Massachusetts School Bandmasters Association concert will feature 350 kids from 31 towns, performing in concert band, orchestra and chorus.  Auditions were held in Pembroke in February. 

Two freshmen girls from Whitman-Hanson made the festival for chorus, Paige Cameron, and Cassie Gilbert.

Eleven other students made the senior festival, held April 11-12 at Sharon High School.

High School chorus teacher Donald Legge said Whitman was one of the original towns involved in the festival.

“There were only 5 or 6 towns involved at the beginning and then it just grew,” he said.  “Towns are just dying to get into this festival.”

This is the first year Whitman-Hanson has hosted the festival since the 70s, however.  With the new high school facilities, it seemed like the perfect time for a return.

A rehearsal will take place on May 2, and the concert will be at 2 p.m. May 3.

“They’ve never rehearsed together.  They come together on those two days … it sounds wonderful,” said Legge.

“We try to get as many kids involved because the level of musicianship is so great.”

Legge, in his sixth year at the high school, teaches chorus as well as a guitar and a “rock band” class.

Whitman-Hanson has a “good-sized” choral program, according to Legge.  There is a show choir, which performs in four shows a year.  There is also a jazz choir, and a student-run a cappella group.

“It just keeps growing,” he said of the school’s music program.