Over 600 students, grades six to 12, from all over Southern Illinois attended the ILMEA All-District Music Festival at EHS Saturday Nov. 5.

Several EHS musicians were selected by audition to participate in the band, choir or orchestra ensembles.

Senior Hannah Nafziger was a member of the All-District choir for her third consecutive year. Every year, students are given four pieces to learn prior to the auditions at Highland High School. At auditions, excerpts from two of the four songs are selected, and the students sing these prepared selection pieces to a judge who is prohibited from seeing the students while they’re performing “to remain unbiased.”

Students in the choir are then placed in another room where they sight read four measures of music in minor and major keys.

“They have a way of scoring the prepared selection based on tone quality and note accuracy, and the sight reading is scored by measuring note accuracy and rhythm,” Nafziger said. “They total these points up to determine if you make it into All-District, and if you score high enough, you also make it into All-State or Honors All-State.”

Senior cellist Beau Lewis also attended All-District this past Saturday. This was his sixth time being part of the concert, and he says “it is an honor and a way to experience a professional orchestra.”

The audition process for orchestra students is fairly similar to the choral process, according to Lewis. It only differs in that these students are given one excerpt piece to audition with and are given the rest of the concert pieces to learn after they make the All-District orchestra. This can be stressful for students because they have a limited amount of time to master several difficult pieces.

Select students are also given the honor of performing solos at the All-District Music Festival. One of these students is choir member and senior Spencer Burbach.

Burbach was labeled as one of the top four tenors at his initial audition in Highland. On the day of the All-District performance, he auditioned against the three other tenors and was chosen for the solo in “Domine Ad Adjuvandum Me Festina.”

Burbach is one of two EHS choir students to participate in All-District for all four years of his high school career, and he has always had positive experiences.

“I personally love (All-District),” he said. “It’s always a great experience to get to work with new, very accomplished directors, and it’s also amazing to get to sing with some of the best singers in our area.”