Last Saturday, Jacksonville High School’s choir and band traveled to PORTA for the annual solo and ensemble contest. Solo and ensemble is a competition for choir and band students. The competition is not like most competitions. The one thing different about this competition is that students can only sing a solo, duet or sing in a small group. The students compete against themselves or with their peers to see how they can improve their musical skills. The grading scale that the musicians are judged on is out of a I,II,III,IV, or V. The best they can get is a I and the lowest is a V. The scores are also out of a number scale. The highest score the musicians can receive is a 40. The numbers and Roman numerals are divided to create the overall score. Usually, the performance that receives a perfect score gets the judges award and the highest score of the day for that room. Each student and/or musician performs in front of a judge. Not everyone has the same judge. The judges look for tone quality, intonation, rhythm, technique, interpretation/musicianship, diction, performance factors, and scales. They are divided up by five points each.

Alice Webster received a I at solo and ensemble and is a junior at JHS. Alice, a three-year choir member, says, “It was a fun and positive time. Everyone did great and I enjoyed watching all the performances.”

Abbi Blanford a choir and band member at Jacksonville High School states, “Well, I think overall it went pretty well! There were a lot of really good scores, especially among the choir kids, and a lot of scores that were really close to being ones.”

Kyla Pattie, a three-year band student, mentioned that everyone did well and most of all everyone had fun!

Bri Daily, a three-year choir member, says, “I personally think everything went well. Most people tried very hard and there were quite a few ones this year.”

Solo and ensemble was a very successful day for the choir and band members! Good luck to both of them at Desert and Dazzle this weekend.