Samo Students play in SMMUSD Solo and Small Ensemble Festival

Sunday Apr. 15 marked the date of the second annual SMMUSD Solo and Small Ensemble Festival for student musicians in the district. This all-day event was hosted at the SMC Performing Arts Center on the Madison Campus located on the corner of 11th Street and Santa Monica Blvd. Although many musicians in the festival are Samo students, due to required attendance, participation is not exclusive to high schoolers and allows other students to sign up as well. Applicants can enter the festival as solo performers or with others in group events, to be scored and evaluated by specialized adjudicators. The festival is organized into six events (including Senior Gala auditions), with a different judge scoring the performers assigned to their room. The scoring guide ranges from “Poor” to “Superior”, with the added “Command Performance” for extraordinary performances. Many students take advantage of the festival as an opportunity to practice their audition pieces in a highly pressurized environment, similar to that of their real auditions, and also to obtain feedback from fellow professional musicians. Many students have been consecutively participating in the festival and acknowledge the great levels of importance in partaking in the organization. Samo student Lily Stern (’20) has performed in at least one event every festival for the past five years, and is thus an experienced veteran. “The benefits of playing in festival for me are that it provides a deadline for perfecting a piece, and another opportunity to play my piece with an accompanist. This year it was nice to see a judge I had years ago who could see my progression as a musician,” Stern said. Although the festival seems to have been exactly the same as past years, it has in fact experienced major changes, especially in the facilitation of the event. Previously known as the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) Solo and Small Ensemble Festival, the event is newly organized and appropriately renamed as SMMUSD Solo and Small Ensemble Festival. Instead of being fashioned by the organization SCSBOA, the district has decided to conduct the festival themselves, meaning that the responsibilities fall into the hands of Samo Orchestra Directors Jason Aiello and Joni Swenson. “Ms. Swenson and I organize most aspects of the festival, from hiring judges, to scheduling the student performances, to coordinating the use of SMC with the SMC administration,” Aiello said.In addition to the months of planning by Aiello and Swenson, parent volunteers keep the festival going smoothly. They partake in prior planning alongside Aiello and Swenson, but also work the day of the event, for example by manning the check-in table and documenting scores. “For me, the job included being at the event for 10 hrs. My responsibility during the festival was to print the certificates for the students attending the event. We had over 225 performances taking place in six events throughout the day, so it required a lot of certificates!” parent volunteer Tina Ogata said. Student volunteers also dedicated hours of their weekend the day of to support the organizers, signing up for shifts to either regulate practice rooms, monitor performances, record scores and/or maintain steady communication throughout the festival. “I always took for granted how smoothly festival went and didn’t realize how early volunteers were there setting up and how late they were there cleaning up. Overall I was impressed by how efficiently our music program can run such a big event every year,” student volunteer Anya Sturm (’18) said.With such an event, the success of the event cannot be measured along a scale, however the fluidity suggests a favorable outcome for this year’s SMMUSD Solo and Small Ensemble Festival.