By Kari Stebbing
Music Director
Rim of the World High School
I wanted to let you all know how our wind ensemble performed at their Regionals competition on April 30.
We performed down at Excelsior High. We performed two pieces for three adjudicators. Our goal for these sorts of festivals is to gain practice in performance, constructive competition with other high schools and gain feedback from other expert musical directors. We played “Among the Clouds” by Brian Balmages and “Encanto” by Robert Smith.
The judges were once again impressed with our students’ performance. Here are some direct quotes from the judges:
- Judge 1: “I LOVED listening to this group – our ideal for how to make good music with limited numbers. BE PROUD. Bravo! Rim is the best kept secret in the [Southern California area].”
- Judge 2: “Thank you for your performance today! I appreciate all of your attention to details and fundamentals. Great job bringing music to life that is written for a larger ensemble. Because of your hard work, the music was never lacking. Congratulations.”
- Judge 3: “Wonderful attention to detail…percussion is well balanced to the winds.”
These are the listed areas of strength, as determined by the judges:
- Confidence!
- Blend + balance
- Dynamics [volume control]
- Great music
- Director
- Making the most of what you have
- Good individual work = good ensemble
One area – minor intonation issues – was listed by the judges as needing improvement.
At the end of our performance the students were then challenged in a new room where they were asked to sight read. This means the students sit down with a piece they have never seen before, we get five minutes to simply look it over; then they are expected to play it as well as they can. I chose the hardest piece in the stack so they would have a real challenge.
The wind ensemble received the highest scoring you can get – a Superior. This judge left only one comment on his scoring sheet: “Good teaching going on!”
The wind ensemble received a unanimous Superior rating, meaning every judge marked us Superior. This is the highest rating a band can possibly get – in terms of these competitions, this if First Place.
The Rim High choir sang their way to a Silver rating at a festival last month.
I also wanted to let you all know how our choir performed at their festival competition on Saturday, April 25. We performed down in the Wilshire Auditorium at Fullerton College.
We performed three pieces for two adjudicators. We have the same goals as for the wind ensemble. After our performance, we got to go to a selected theme park, Knott’s Berry Farm.
The Rim High choir received a Silver rating, which is equivalent to Second Place.
Forum Music Festivals, the company that puts on these competitions, emphasizes that the performers in the Silver category are among the top 20 percent in the country!
A big shoutout to Aidan Lynch for receiving the Outstanding Musician award! He performed the lead solo on the barbershop hit “Sh-Boom!” and he knocked it out of the park!
And, at our last festival of the season, our jazz band received an Excellent rating, which in terms of these competitions can be viewed as second place.
We performed in the Riverside Community College Jazz Festival, a two-day event that pulled at least 100 bands from across California to the venue. We were able to hear one of the RCC jazz ensembles perform and several of the top high school jazz bands from across Southern California. The Monday Evening RCC jazz ensemble we watched perform not only had several of our judges from across all of our competitions, but Rim alumnus Steve Ragsdale as well.
We performed three pieces for three adjudicators. Directly afterward, the judges worked with our group on how to best improve their performance. One judge specified that, while he had comments on how to improve, they were minor comments which reflects the excellence that they performed with.
A final shout-out to Kelsi Miller for helping us. Your presence and support are always highly valued – thank you!
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