Twenty one events and over twenty eight students will be representing Berlin at this year’s state Solo and Ensemble on April 26 at UW-Oshkosh.
“We have had people go I think every year since I have been here,” Director of Instrumental Music Ben Ruetten said.
State is an opportunity for performers to show their perfected works from the district round.
“You take all the feedback from the district round judges, and you try to apply all of that. You also get all that time between district and state to polish everything, and make it better than what you had,” Ruetten said.
There was a lot of time and effort put in by students to qualify for state.
“In order to qualify for state you have to select a class “A” event. There are three different classes you can choose from, but class A is eligible for state. Then they would have to receive what we call a ‘star one’ in order to qualify. Which means they got between five and eight points in their score sheet,” Choir Director Abbe Lane said.
With the competition approaching, the performer’s practice allows them to take the notes they have received and perfect the piece.
“I practice by running through the song over and over, fixing what I think I should work on,” freshman Ella Spitler said, who will be performing a flute solo.
The excitement and anticipation is high amongst the performers.
“I’m feeling really excited. We did pretty good at just our normal Solo and Ensemble, so I think we are going to do pretty good at state too,” junior Annamae Clinch said.
Each student is looking to achieve something in this performance.
“I’m looking to improve on just my vocal technique as a whole just listening to what the judge has to offer,” Junior Addison Dominic said.
The students also encourage everyone to join both band and choir, along with pursuing Solo and Ensemble.
“I think people should know that Solo and Ensemble is much more than singing and stuff, it’s more about achieving goals, so if people have even a little bit of interest they should come out and talk to Ms. Lane about it,” Clinch said.
Ruetten says that he feels the students handled the time leading up to state really well.
“I think the fact that we have as many people involved this year, whether they made it to state or not is difficult stuff,” Ruetten said.
