The young treble voices on the right side of the stage hit all the high notes Monday as a 200-voice male choir sang a mix of classical and modern works. The older baritones and tenors on the left provided balance.
And in the middle were young men whose changing voices meant they didn't quite fit in either of the other groups.
Dealing with puberty can be trouble enough. Choral directors have to ask self-conscious 12-year-old boys to perform on stage when they can't trust that the right sounds will come from their throats.
Singers from 22 districts found strength in numbers yesterday at North Hills Junior High School, where they learned how to deal with unpredictable vocal cracklings in "Mucho Macho Music -- A Young Men's Song Festival For Changing Voices."
"It's quite a lot of testosterone -- a lot of fluctuating testosterone -- for one building," said Lisa Jaworowski, a choral teacher in the Moon Area School District and regional chairwoman of the American Choral Directors Association, which sponsored the event.
Other choral directors were impressed with the number of singers on stage.
"I have not seen any group this large in my 33 years of teaching, not with boys this young," said Christine Jordanoff, director of choral organizations at Duquesne University. Jordanoff was so intrigued by the project that she brought about 20 music education students -- future teachers -- with her.
Choral teachers say they have trouble keeping middle school boys in singing groups.
"Many boys this age do not know what to do with their own voices, so it's important for them to see other kids going through the same thing," said Rebecca Sensor, a vocal instructor at the DuBois Area Middle School in Clearfield County. Sensor and about 20 students traveled nearly three hours to attend the all-day workshop.
"It's hard to recruit. There is a coolness factor, or lack of it, at work with getting boys to sing."
It's no secret, she said, that most boys would rather play football than sing, "but I always tell them they can sing when they are 85 and that they can't play football at that age."
Sterling Dudt, 13, an eighth-grader at North Hills, said his voice has changed.
"I have trouble going real low or real high," he said.
Music teachers say that is the real challenge in working with adolescent boys. Sterling said the vocal exercises and training at the festival were useful.
The rehearsal and training sessions were led by Kenneth Phillips, director of graduate studies in music education at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and author of "Teaching Kids to Sing." The youths were joined by the Men's Chorus of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Lawrence County.
'I think this is great," said tenor Dennis Buffone, a senior at Westminster. "I wish I had had this kind of help when I was younger."
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