Music contest season has begun. Musicians went to district solo and small ensemble contest on March 3.
The following vocalists participated in districts and will be moving on to state which will take place on May 1: Ayden Burdick, solo and small group; Dillan Ellison solo; Kathryn Lomax small group; Eli Long small group; Amelia Roberts small group; Alysia Yoder small group; Angela Cerecero small group; Addison Hill small group; Chloey Brazel solo; Jayden Culbertson small group; Gabe Wassman small group; Serenity Miller small group; Sonia Lasseigne small group. Vocal music director Deanna Schockmann is in her ninth year teaching at WHS and musicians credit her with much of their success.
Freshman Addison Hill explained how she is grateful for her.
“She is always determined to make sure that students do their best and are pushed to the right limit,” Hill said.
The Freshman trio includes freshman Addison Hill, Amelia Roberts, and Angela Cerecero. This group was elected to go state and plan to continue to improve their performance before the state contest.
Freshman Amelia Roberts explained how dynamics can make a drastic change in their performance.
“Personally, I feel like if we can improve on dynamics and pronunciation, we could make these music pieces way better,” Roberts said.
Freshman Angela Cerecero also agrees with Amelia on the dynamics part.
“I believe working on dynamics can improve our songs.”
Freshman Addison Hill can improve individually by maintaining her melody throughout the music piece.
“Maintaining melody is what I am mainly focussed on,” she said.
Junior Chloey Brazel’s solo performance includes two different songs that she will be singing.
“I believe I can work on improving more pleasant expressions, taking deeper breaths, and working better on my memorization for my Italian solo,” she said.
She’s excited to go to state and see what the state judges think of her.
“I’m excited to see how I can improve and to see what the state judges think of me as well as go with a few of my favorite friends for the experience,” she said.
Her goals are to hit all my high notes in her second solo very solidly and to add her touch to her songs to make them really feel like they are her own experience.
The Warsaw SATB group includes Ayden Burdick, Jayden Culbertson, Sonia Lasseigne, Kathryn Lomax, Elijah Long, Serenity Miller, Gabriel Wassman and Alysia Yoder. Lomax thinks that as a group they can improve on dynamics.
“I believe we need to work on dynamics and making sure that we are all together and just listening throughout the group,” Lomax said.
On the other hand, Burdick believes that they can improve by reading the music more.
Schockmann believes that all of these groups have things they can work on.
“There is much improvement to be made in all areas. With all the snow days, we didn’t get to refine elements as much as we would have. However, they have a very solid foundation to work from,” Schockmann said.
Although several students are going to state, there are still a few who are not going and would like to improve for the next year.
Freshman Abigail Burnham believes she can work on not being as nervous .
“I believe that I can improve on reading my music more and my confidence overall I believe this can really give me a chance for this next year,” Burnham said.
Another student that didn’t quite make it to state for a solo is Madrigal student Amelia Roberts.
“I believe I need to work on confidence and making sure that I hit all of my high notes with good dynamics,” she said.
Shockmann said she is proud of these students for making it to state, which is due to their work ethic overall.
“Each group or solo has motivation to strive for excellence. They each make investments of their own time by working independently. They all have a great work ethic which is why they made it to state,” she said.
Large vocal ensembles will attend a district contest at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar on April 11. Large band ensembles compete on April 4 at SBU.
