When the drum line marches through the hallways, it usually signals a celebration for a team headed to State. On Wednesday, however, the music was not for a sports team, but for five other music makers who went to State in Peoria last weekend to participate in the ILMEA State festival.

“ILMEA is the Illinois Music Education Association,” Kelly Schwantes, senior, said. “They hold auditions with a specific repertoire of music throughout the state of Illinois for high school students, and based in your audition scores, you get selected onto one of two ensembles if your scores are high enough.”

The festival was hosted at the Peoria Civic Center, where 200 students in the choir rehearsed with a guest director for three days. On Saturday all the students performed the piece they have been working on for weeks. While most students travel to State in hopes to win or move on to the next level, for choir students it was all about performing.

“I practiced a lot individually I practice with one or two other students occasionally,” Schwantes said. “It’s really interesting to see how everyone else prepares so that when we all get to the festival and all 200 students are together it is interesting to see how that hard work pays off.”

Because the ILMEA is very select, only five of the choir students qualified to participate in the festival. Some upperclassmen, like Schwantes, were able to experience going to state more than once.

“I got to go last year in a different choir and in comparison from this year to last year I was much more relaxed,” Schwantes said. “I was really nervous last year because as a junior it is harder, I think, to get into either of these ensembles. So going back I was much more relaxed and I was able to have more of an experience meeting people rather than focusing on my music, which is something I really valued in this go around.”

To the choir students who have been singing most of their lives, travelling to State was an event that made them realize that their hard work has paid off.

“It’s one of those things where it’s something I spent the most time in,” Schwantes said. “I played kiddie soccer when I was young and took a couple art classes, but this is the thing that I stuck with and it makes sense for me because I worked the hardest on it. I feel comfortable pursuing, I know how to navigate it, I know how to get to the next level.”