Students Give All-State Advice
December 21, 2017
Twenty-six City High students competed for a chance to play in this year’s All State Festival. After days of auditions at Washington High School thirteen students were selected.
“[Auditioning] is really scary, because you only have five minutes, so there’s not much room for mistakes,” said Audrey Friestad ‘18, who played clarinet in the All State Band. Friestad ‘18 deals with the stress of auditioning by taking walks outside and playing games with my friends. “Outside the audition room, I listen to music so I don’t have to worry about hearing the competition,”
Both Friestad ‘18 and her sister, Laura Friestad ‘21, auditioned and were accepted. “I was very nervous, but I tried to just focus on the music. The worst part was waiting,” Friestad ‘21 said on her experience auditioning. Both Friestad ‘21 and Dr. McReynolds, one of City High band directors, strongly recommend practice.
“You don’t practice until you get it right, you practice until you can’t get it wrong,” McReynolds advises.
McReynolds also recommends practicing as much as you can, as soon as you can. “You know you’re going to have to play a solo, so you gotta pick that out and start playing that now.”
Even though Friestad ‘21 felt the audition practice was stressful, she really enjoyed the trip. She also enjoyed spending time with the other students.
“It’s fun having new and old friends there because everyone has music in common!” Friestad ‘18 reflected.
The trip lasted three days, from 16th to 18th of November, and took place in Ames, Iowa. The concert was on Saturday and all of the students got to stay in a hotel. “It was really cool bonding with all the other clarinets that got in, [and there were a] whole lot of them!” Friestad ‘18 said.
McReynolds was proud of all the students who auditioned.
“The students did very well. They enjoyed the ensembles they played in, and the ensembles played very well. And there were absolutely no problems that I encountered, so it was a great night.”