38 musicians will join forces with other area students in the upcoming Illinois Music Education Association festival. Band, orchestra, choir, and jazz band students competed against one another for the coveted spots.

Teachers who are involved with the music department, such as Sheri Conover, assistant band director, held pre-auditions during the first weeks of September, in order to give students time to prepare for the actual auditions that took place on the last week of September.

“By knowing the students well enough, [the teachers] are able to tell that even if one isn’t totally prepared at the time where we are pre-auditioning, we know that they will be prepared when the actual audition rolls around,” Conover said. “There’s a balance where you have to know the student, while also saying, ‘Where are you at and what can you show me?’. [The auditions] aren’t really graded, it’s more helping the students with the music and giving them tips and then expecting them to follow through on them.”

Since the students are selected based on the quality of their musical performance and on how well teachers believe they can carry out the music given at the festival, the students’ commitment to preparing for the festival may span a whole year, Conover says.

“Students are all given the materials to prepare,” Conover said. “[Students] spend upwards of several months preparing by working on scales and listening and doing triads in the choir, which helps to prepare [their] repertoire that will be used at the festival. Whether they get help from private teachers or from the [classroom teachers] is up to them. Since we have a maximum number that we can send, each of the teachers here select the students that will go to the festival. We have to say, ‘Well…we have to take our best shot’ and those are the students that are selected to go.”

Charlie Frampton, sophomore, was aware of the stiff competition that he faced so he did not audition for the festival last year as a freshman. However, this year he auditioned as a member of the Jazz Band and made the festival as a trumpet player. His excitement for the festival has not wavered since he received the good news, Frampton said.

“I’m most looking forward to meeting new people that enjoy the same hobbies as me and playing some difficult music in order to gain some experience,” Frampton said. “Growing as a musician is what I’m really looking forward to getting out of the festival.”

The Illinois Music Education Association District 7 festival takes place at Glenbrook South High School and is an all-day event. Band, orchestra, and choir participate and compete that day, while the jazz band competes a week later. The festival starts at 8 o’clock in the morning. Each group is set up in rehearsal rooms and they spend the morning rehearsing, take a break for lunch, rehearse more in the afternoon, and then finalize their preparations for the concert, which begins at 3 o’clock.

“Because of the experience they receive by going there and this being one of the areas that has one of the highest concentration of excellent musicians, and since the students are being taught by a top-notch instructor, the learning experience is a big part of what they get out of that day,” Conover said. “[The teachers] hope that the students get that it’s about the experience that you get from the conductor and then collaborating with the other students you meet from across the district area.”