School Features

Elise Yi, a sixth grader at Olympic View Middle School, admits she was nervous for her first solo and ensemble festival.  Really nervous.

“It felt like I was in a dream,” she said.  “Everything was sort of blurry, like a dream, because I was so nervous and excited and unsure.”

Students from Explorer, Harbour Pointe, Olympic View and Voyager middle schools performed at the 2010 Sno-King Music Educators Association solo and ensemble festival May 1.

The SKMEA solo and ensemble festival gives students in middle-school bands and orchestras from the Sno-King region the opportunity to perform for a judge and get feedback. 

About 400 students from the Shoreline, Edmonds, Mukilteo and South Whidbey school districts attended the festival at Alderwood Middle School in Lynnwood.

“It’s a learning experience; a growing experience,” coordinator Barbara Oakley said of the festival.  “The students are learning what they can do to improve, because it doesn’t matter who you are, you can always improve.”

Olivia Kim, Katherine Choi, Christina Thomas, Celeste Dylla and Sam Straub, all seventh graders at Explorer, performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Sonatina in G.”

“Sonatina” was originally written as a duet, but the Fine Tuners, as they call themselves, played the piece as a string quintet with four cellos and a violin.

“It’s fun to play in small groups instead of in the big orchestra because it lets you show what you’ve learned,” Straub said.  “You make a difference.  If someone messes up in the orchestra, it doesn’t matter, but in this (festival) it does because you can hear it.”

Nathan Davis, an eighth grader at Harbour Pointe, performed “Hungarian Dance No. 5” by Johannes Brahms on the alto saxophone with accompanying piano.  He said he chose “No. 5” because he likes its lively tune.

“Solo and ensemble is a bunch of fun, but it takes a lot of work and dedication,” Davis said.  “You can’t rush through and learn your pieces in a couple of days.  It took me two and a half months just to get this down, and it’s only one page.”

Rachel Carey and Rachel Do, or Rachel Squared, both eighth graders at Voyager, performed “Nineteen Duos” from the works of François Devienne.  They said they were nervous, but that it was fun to get the feedback from the judge.

“I think we did awesome,” Carey said.  “We didn’t mess up and we had fun, and that was our goal.  If it was a competition, then that would be different, but this was just something that’s going to help us in the future.”

Christine Kim, Jay Han, Celine Lam and Elise Yi, all sixth graders at Olympic View Middle School, performed Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.”  They said they chose the piece because they liked how it merges the voices of three violins and a cello perfectly in a round.

“I like to play in a group rather than do a solo,” Kim said.  “I don’t really like it that much when I’m the center of attention.  It’s a lot more fun having to play all together and [try to] not goof off.”

Oakley said the judges at the solo and ensemble festival are there to encourage and inspire the students to continue on in music.

“It can be scary for kids, so we try to be as positive as possible,” she said.  “It doesn’t matter whether it was a phenomenal job or it was a total disaster, because a lot of times this festival can mean whether the kids go on in music or not.”