49 musicians earn All State

On Saturday, Oct. 2, the band, orchestra and choir students departed for the Hilton Coliseum where they would spend 12 hours waiting to see if they would be playing in the All-State Festival in Ames this year.

This year 49 students from Cedar Falls High School were selected to be apart of this festival.

Many students try out each year. Some make it all eligible years, some make it a couple and some just gain the experience from going through the process.

Senior Megan Smith has tried out for the past four years on clarinet, and the past two years she has been selected. “My favorite part would probably be the friends that I get to make because I get to interact with a lot of different people and form close relationships with them as were practicing and mock auditions,” she said.

The choir, band and orchestra teachers set the students up with rmusic, practice times, personal help, etc., but in the end, how far the students want to go is up to them.

“I have them make sure they know the music, and then we start rehearsing from the first day of school,” choir teacher Eliott Kranz said. “Once that happens, each quartet rehearses with me once a week for 45 minutes to one hour, and then I encourage/expect those quartets to be working on their own the rest of the week.”

He added, “I consider All-State to be a student driven process. Students need to do the work in order to achieve their goals, which is hopefully making it into All-State Choir.”

Smith said through this process she has learned the value of perseverance. Sophomore year Smith’s audition didn’t go to plan. “What I did, instead of being ‘oh, I suck, I guess I can never do this again.’ I just went ‘oh, I’ll do better next year.’”

Students who take part in this process also learn how to work with a team. Senior Sam Lubs, who has gotten into All-State the past three years, is currently a Bass 1 and said practicing with quartets is one of the most important and challenging parts. A quartet is a group of four singers, one alto, soprano, tenor and bass. “I make sure I know all the music. I’ve had quartets where certain individuals don’t know the music, and it can be frustrating to have to go back and reteach the music and relearn the music before actually making progress within your quartet, within each part. I make sure I have the music learned, so I have done my part. I make sure we all keep a positive attitude,” he said.

Smith also learned the lesson “don’t expect big results without putting in a lot of work.” Smith said in the past years she did not work enough on her scales, but this year she focused on this, and the work paid off.

Orchestra teacher Ann Osborne observation’s emulate the lesson Smith learned. “We had a lot of scratches this year, but the students who followed through and auditioned all worked very hard and were very well-prepared. Many of them were in the orchestra practice rooms every day before school, after school, during their open periods and during Power Hour,” she said.

Whether or not students drop out of the All-State process before they get to audition, do not get selected in the audition to audition or do not make it into the festival, students get in touch with  who they are as musicians. “I think the most valuable thing from the whole entire experience is learning to know your own voice, like you don’t usually get that opportunity when you’re singing in a choir with 80 plus people,” senior Kellen Chenoweth said.

Kranz and Osborne also said this is their favorite part of the process as well. “My favorite part is seeing the incredible improvement in a student’s playing because they chose to go through the All-State process,” Osborne said.

The Iowa All-State Festival will be on Nov. 23, at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames at 7:30. To buy tickets, visit this link: https://www.ticketmaster.com/iowa-all-state-music-festival-tickets/artist/1509666

All State Choir

Katherine Lawson- Soprano

Kellen Chenoweth- Soprano

Ryen Ludeman- Soprano

Madison Vetter- Soprano

Annie Brown- Soprano

Koro Castillo- Soprano

Haley Jaeger- Alto

Ella Stineman- Alto

Shelby Conditt- Alto

Kallista Mohl- Alto

Lydia Ochoa- Alto

Julia Grey- Alto

Erin McRae- Alto

Ahmad Madlock- Tenor

Ian Lewis-Tenor

Owen Ausborn- Tenor

DaQuevion Burke- Tenor

Gus Ferguson- Tenor

Nathan Smith- Tenor

Lyle Conditt- Bass

Sam Lubs- Bass

Ben Schockley- Bass

Dalton Blackford- Bass

Ryan Marten- Bass

Elias Smith- Bass

All State Orchestra 

Klaertje Hesselink- Violin

Mindy Li- Violin

Julia Magee- Violin

Jacob Olthoff- Violin

Bhoomika Shettigar- Violin

Emma Sliwinski- Violin

Mallory Welsch- Viola

Jenna Atkins- Alternate Violin

Anastasia Davidson- Alternate Viola

All State Band 

Abby Townsend – Flute

Holly Hays- Flute

Lauren Wilson-Flute

Preston Atkins- Bassoon

David Butler- Bass Clarinet

Emma Fuchtman- Clarinet

Antoine Cuhat- Clarinet

Megan Smith- Clarinet

David Butler- Bass Clarinet

Jax Barry- Alto Saxaphone

Ethan Gruening- Tenor Saxaphone

Emma Cryer-Trumpet

Jace Barry- Trumpet

Grace Hertz- French Horn

Ethan Kober- French Horn

Liam Hendrickson- Trombone

Annika Strohm- Euphonium

Ben Campbell- Percussion

Sofia Munoza- Alternate Alto Saxaphone

Dante Verastegui- Alternate Trumpet

Pascal Cuhat- Alternate Trumpet

Ben Meinders- Alternate Percussion

Adam Schroeder- Alternate Percussion