A New Melody to Old Tradition
West Delaware hosts a make-up State Solo/Small Ensemble Festival after original cancellation
Before their performance at the rescheduled State Solo/Small Ensemble Festival, a mens’ ensemble practices.
April 27, 2018
The State Solo/Small Ensemble Festival was cancelled for Sat., Mar. 24, due to a snow storm. Despite the cancellation, West Delaware ran a make-up State Solo/Small Ensemble Festival on Wed., Mar. 28.
According to Duane Philgreen, choir director, this was the first time the event has been cancelled in his 31 years of teaching.
“The state office said that a weather cancellation has happened before for this event, but it is a rarity,” Philgreen said.
The event was rescheduled for a Wednesday. “We wanted to hold the event as close to the original date as possible. Weekends were out of the question because of other activities,” Philgreen said. “Wed., Mar. 28, was the day.”
At the rescheduled event, two vocal judges and one instrumental judge evaluated 97 vocal and 36 instrumental performances.
“Every solo/group that I was a part of had their best performance yet!” Philgreen said. “I think this was the case for almost all of the events.”
Receiving Best of Center awards were Matthew Salas (10) with his trumpet solo and Mariah Seeley (12) and Olivia Neuzil (11) with their vocal solos.
“When I was done, I felt relieved. I was proud of all the hard work I put in and of Mr. Philgreen because the piano part was tough,” Seeley said.
Because the event was rescheduled for a Wednesday, students felt they were not as supported as they normally would have been. Seeley said, “I feel like not as many people were in the room as normal.”
Sophomore Kirsten Stiefel, another performer, said, “When it was cancelled, we were all disappointed because we didn’t know if we would get to perform after all the work we put in.”
