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.

IMEA District 7 Music Festival

On Saturday I went to the IMEA All-District festival. They are the people who put on the solo and ensemble festival and the all-district and all-state band concerts in Illinois. It's for kids who play music in the public schools. Earlier in the year I tried out for it and made it.

On Saturday, I my mom woke me up to get ready for IMEA. I was tired, but excited. I went downstairs, ate breakfast, packed my clairenet, and grabbed my music. I got in the car and my mom drove me to the high school where the IMEA All-District festival was taking place. The building was big and confusing with a bunch of different wings. My mom's strategy was to follow the stream of kids dressed in black pants and white shirts. This led us to the orchestra rehearsal room, which was on the exact opposite side of the school from where the band was rehearsing. I did warn her that we were following people with violas and violins. Fortunately, the school's choral director walked us across the school to the band rehearsal room. When we got there my mom left to find my school band director. I unpacked my clarinet and went to the band room.

The band room was basically a plain room with chairs, music stands, and lots of quotations on the wall.  While I waited for the conductor to show up, I got out my music and practiced the Stamitz Concerto. When he arrived he made a speech about how honored he was to direct this band. He told us to introduce ourselves to the people next to us. I was sitting 6th chair between two 8th grade girls. They were very tall, but they were very nice. There weren't very many 6th graders there, but there were several kids from MYA there.

After that rehearsal, we went to the stage where we were going to perform, and had another rehearsal. The second rehearsal was much longer than the first. We practiced Chimes of Liberty and Nettleton on the stage. Then we went back to the rehearsal room, and practiced again before lunch. We mostly worked on the third movement of the Fanfare Ode and Festival. We had already played about two and a half hours and we were only half way done! I practice a lot at home, so I wasn't tired yet.

At lunch I met my brother Ari's friend Raffi. Raffi plays trombone at MYA in the Concert Orchestra. We ate lunch together. Raffi was playing euphonium, not trombone, because he wanted to do something on his euphonium for a change. We were in the lunch room for about forty-five minutes. We had sausage pizza for lunch, and it was great. I spent the last fifteen minutes of the break practicing the Stamitz Concerto some more. While I was practicing the director, Dr. Cunningham, walked up to me and asked me if I was playing the Stamitz Clarinet Concerto. I said, "Yes!" He told me that I was playing it really well.

After the break Dr. Cunningham told us that we had some really talented players here. He said that he had heard some really great solos during the break. When he said that, he was looking at me, which made me feel really proud! We rehearsed for about an hour and forty-five minutes. That made a total four hours and fifteen minutes of rehearsing. I thought it would be more like five hours but I was fine with less.

Finally, it was time to go to the concert. I was very nervous at first, but I felt fine after a few minutes of talking with my friends. Chatting with the others made me feel more confident. After the junior chorus who performed before us went offstage, it was our turn. We came onstage and got ready to perform. The pieces went off with only a few mistakes, which were all almost unnoticable. We went offstage, turned our music in, and I went to meet my mom downstairs. It was an exciting day.  I had a great time!