Seventeen music students, including those from band, choir and orchestra, qualified for this year’s Illinois Music Educators All-District Festival.

Auditions were held on Oct. 10, though students had worked to prepare themselves long before.

“This year in band we had the most students in band audition for ILMEA since I’ve been here, with 16 people making it,” senior band member Curtis Sellers said.

Orchestra students participated in three seminars in September. Composer Dr. Mark Connor spoke about the commissioned piece he is writing for the EHS Orchestra, which will perform the piece during the ILMEA All-State Music Conference, held at the Peoria Civic Center in January.

They also attended a workshop at SIUE hosted by the university string faculty, and spent a day working with Professor Rudolf Haken (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), who coached violists on ILMEA audition music.

Senior Brendan Korak made ILMEA with his trumpet.

“I’ve already made it in every year since my sophomore year, but it still feels good to know I made it,” Korak said.

Senior Curtis Sellers also had confidence.

“Edwardsville has always had a lot of people make it in choir and orchestra because they are successful programs with talented directors,” Sellers said.

Senior Natalie Grant wasn’t as at ease when she auditioned.

“The audition was in front of judges, and that meant performance anxiety,” Grant said. “I couldn’t completely prepare myself for that, but I tried to tell myself that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.”