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by Michael Larsen
NS music department students attended state Solo Ensemble on April 30. Despite the significant changes to the competition, three NS submissions received high enough scores to qualify for the state competition. One student, Chloe Swap, and the percussion ensemble scored an Excellent overall, and one student, Mia Swapp, received a Superior for her performance at state. Choir students also received a score of Superior after performing in Farmington on May 14.
For Solo Ensemble, students prepare music pieces on their own time to be judged and reviewed. This year, music competitions had to be changed in order to accommodate for COVID-19 restrictions. Instead of going to Regional Solo Ensemble in person, NS students submitted applications and received their scores from judges online. Some students had mixed feelings about the change of plans.
“Part of the goal of it is the experience. When you go to region, there are a lot of other soloists around and you hear them warming up and hear them perform and it’s a whole thing,” Kidder said. “And then when you are selected to go to state, you travel up to a bigger school and you know there’s better players around, the whole experience was kind of stale this year because it was recorded. Then you get your feedback then you just record again. I don’t know. It was missing a lot.”
Despite the change in plans, NS students submitted their pieces to judges online to receive feedback and to be scored. Mia was excited to see that she had made the cut to state, along with Chloe Swapp and the percussion ensemble.
“If there’s someone who wants to do Solo Ensemble next year—do it, it’s a good experience to have,” Swapp said. “Pick a song you enjoy singing, and especially remember that the judges aren’t there to make sure you fail, they are on your side. The judges were very kinwd with their comments and gave me good advice to improve my song, so get out there”
NS choir students competed in a state competition on Thursday, May 14. The choir festival took place at Farmington Highschool from May 13 to May 15. Students were bussed up to Farmington High School to perform their pieces. The section leaders this year were Kylee Davis as alto section leader, Colin Zanocco as bass section leader, Adam Cox as tenor section leader, and Liz Madsen as the soprano section leader.
Because of covid restrictions, the choir was spaced out from one another and from the conductor in order to follow safety guidelines. Several students remarked that they had trouble performing because of how the stage was organized. In spite of adjustments, students practiced and performed at Farmington High School without any difficulty.
“It was organized nicely,” Davis said. “We were taken from checkpoint to checkpoint throughout the school and stayed very on schedule.”
“They did really well,” Kidder said. “It was kind of a weird experience because the stage was set up to allow for social distancing and some of the choirs in the state are a lot bigger than ours and so there were like fifteen yards between myself and the choir because there was just so much extra space. Some of the choir members talked about how they couldn’t really hear everyone else in the choir, but they performed really well. They did a really good job and yeah, I was really proud of them.”
Choir students performed three songs to three judges at the competition, including, “The Music of Living” by Dan Forrest, “Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie” arranged by Greg Gilpin, and “Like a River in My Soul” arranged by Tim Osiek. After performing, the judges then scored the three songs. NS received an average score of Superior.
