On Saturday, January 27, Emerson Orchestra students participated in FISD’s Solo and Ensemble competition. Many students have excelled in their events and have advanced to the State competition which will occur on May 25 and 27 at UT Austin.
Orchestra students have been perfecting their pieces for the past few weeks. Whether they were participating solo or with an ensemble, practice has been key.
“I mostly worked on memorization because of how long my piece was,” Solo competitor Hannah Jang said. “As for everything else, I learned by getting constructive criticism from my private lesson teacher.”
For ensemble players, teamwork has been essential to preparing for the competition.
“To prepare for the ensemble, Amy, Joanne, and I worked hard on individual practice outside of class, as well as meeting during breaks to rehearse and perfect our piece,” Yuna Kim said. “We got Dr. Campos, a private lesson teacher, to help out and give us critiques for our improvement a few days in advance, as well.”
However, the practice doesn’t stop there. In the next few months, further working on their pieces will be crucial for state-bound orchestra students.
“We are doing the same thing as we prepared for the solo and ensemble: using professionals’ critiques to better ourselves and most importantly focus on hearing each other and really playing together as an ensemble,” Kim said.
All state students have different approaches to tackling the state competition.
“If you are playing a solo and want to go to state, I would strongly recommend memorizing your piece two to three weeks beforehand so that you don’t have any silly blanks during your performance,” said Jang. “If participating in an ensemble, I would try to meet up with your group members as much as possible in order to get reps in and sound together.”
Although students competing have a lot on their plate, their passion for music coupled with their hard work is sure to ensure success.
“The most important thing is to really enjoy the music and remember that music is about how it is heard and phrased rather than simply focusing on the technicalities of it,” Kim said.
