Students competed in the State Solo and Ensemble held at Andover High School on April 26. This festival was one of the many opportunities that music students could showcase their talent and compete with it. This particular festival was especially special because to make it to the State level in the first place each student had to receive a “I” rating at the regional contest held earlier in the month.

“The student did well. I would like to see more students participating at the State and District level… Overall I was very happy with how the students preformed at the State level,” band director Matt Bradford said.

Typically only the highest achieving musicians compete at this level. Students go through months of work to prepare for the Regional contest. After the Regional contest, they take the comments and advice the judges gave them and work to improve their solo and ensemble even more until State.

Overall the students did extremely well. Half of the students received II’s which is the second highest rating given and the other half of the students received I’s which is the highest rating given at a music festival.

“I don’t think that there was much practicing going on between District and State competition which did hurt some of the students in their performance but considering that they all were able to do really well,” Bradford said.

Even though there were many talented students who were able to receive great ratings at District and State there are still hopes for the future.

“I would like to see everybody in Symphonic band to participate in either in a solo or ensemble. Especially since District is hosted here and we have so many talented students there is no reason why we shouldn’t have more students playing in State,” Bradford said.