IMEA District VII Junior Concert

Last Saturday I attended the District VII Junior IMEA concert. Early in October, my sister Eowyn, who is in 6th grade, and I tried out for IMEA and made it. I didn’t know what chair I made until the concert. When I got to Wauconda High School where the concert was being held, my school band teacher greeted me and told me I made first chair.  I was so excited! I went to the band room and found my chair.  It was crowded with young musicians.  Leah, a clarinetist from my MYA orchestra, was second chair, and Steven who is also in my MYA orchestra was there too.

This is my sister who plays the horn.

After a few minutes our conductor got to the band room. She started us with a fifteen minute warm up. It was very interesting and I learned some things about breathing that I didn’t know.  She demonstrated how to breathe efficiently.  First you breathe out, and then you breathe in, and then you breathe in again a little extra in a slightly different way.  It's hard to describe, but it was very helpful with breath support. We worked on Cenotaph by Jack Stamp, then Shenendoah by Frank Ticheli, and lastly the first three movements of Suite Provencale by Jan Van de Roost.  After that we had a break.

During the break we had lunch. I sat at a table with a bunch of Midwest Young Artist wind players who made IMEA.  Being in MYA is like being a part of a family.  When we go to places outside of MYA, we are really nice to each other, and we hang out, and I like that.  After I finished eating, I went to the band room ten minutes early and played my clarinet. I was having a really fun time. When the conductor got back to the band room we worked on the last movement of Suite Provencale and all of Seventy Six Trombones. The conductor kept telling the clarinets that we were playing too loud a lot, and I agreed with her.

After that we tried out the gym that we were going to perform in. We practiced for about thirty minutes in a dress rehearsal. Finally it was time for the concert. The IMEA orchestra and choral came in and found their spots in the gym. We were going first.  It was really fun being first chair. After the band played, the IMEA choral and orchestra performed. They sounded great! It was a really exhausting day but also really fun. I can’t wait until next year when IMEA comes again.