Recently, Arlington High School hosted the Senior Districts Festival, where over fifty student musicians from Lexington participated after auditioning in November. We played in four different ensembles, each with its own pieces. To prepare for the performance, we had three days of intense rehearsals to develop and prepare the music as a whole.

Before the festival, the music was given to those who met or exceeded the audition cutoff score, which was 176 out of 200 points. This gave students time to learn and familiarize themselves with the pieces. When the time came, all the students from LHS were bused to Arlington High School, where we met with the students from throughout the district and were introduced to the conductor. The rehearsal, which lasted a few hours, focused on incorporating the conductor’s ideas into the music rather than on technical issues. In addition, outside of rehearsal times, there were plenty of opportunities for students to meet and interact with each other. While the rehearsals themselves were intense and demanding, all the new students were friendly, and the staff were supportiveEven though some of these aspects may have appeared small, to me, they all fit in and make the experience more enjoyable.  After many hours of hard work, the two concerts went spectacularly well. Although it was an intense few days, many bonds were formed. Now, looking into the future, Junior District auditions will start soon, along with All-State auditions for students who received high enough scores during the Senior District auditions.

By attending the Senior Districts Festival, you can watch the hard work of students from all over the district and LHS. It is challenging to hone the skills required to play and perform the pieces, but meeting new people and experiences lighten the mood and makes the event worthwhile.