All State Band
Photo taken by Mr. Eversole of All State Band.
All state band is a challenge to be part. It consists of a statewide band of the best students in schools across the state. The All State Band, a competition based event, challenges students to record pieces of music and audition. Those who qualify become a collaborative show, made up of every student in band who is the best of the best out of their school.
Butch Eversole, the band teacher at Palmer Ridge, went into a little more detail about what All State Band entails. “So All State Band is made up of the top students on their instruments from across the whole state, it’s open to just juniors and seniors and the students have to audition for it.” said Eversole. It is a competition to qualify for the event. “You have to prepare for that audition, so our students worked on this music in the fall.
Cole Wickert, a saxophone playing senior and a two time All State Band Member, admitted that the qualifications are competitive. “Incredibly so yes, so especially for my section saxophone. There are probably the most saxophone auditions out of any instrument and they only take 4,” said Wickert (12). “Depending on the instrument it is like 2-4 mins worth of music they have to prepare… …And then they are judged.” said Eversole about how to qualify.
They work and show 2-4 min music pieces to show their talents. They then are judged between all the schools and get chosen. Wickert said this when asked about if it’s hard to qualify “ I would say yes. It is just a lot of hard work and practice, because you get the etude at the start of the year and you’re practicing that same etude tell months and months in and then you just send in one interview or audition piece.”
Then the chosen musicians separated into their different instruments and then with all the chosen musicians from around the state to make a band. The band will then perform. “So the biggest thing is that they are going to give you a lot of repertoire very quickly and sometimes you can not learn it all. But the biggest thing is that making sure you have time down and tenacious down and overall just playing to best of your ability, and sometimes your are not going to get all the notes in but that is OK. The important thing is playing to the best of your ability.”
“Oh man. I am really proud.” said Eversole about his students. “We have 10 students selected to the band, the highest number of any school in the state by far. There might be another school who has 7 or 8, but most schools if they have anyone have 1 or 2.” Wickert was also very proud of his peers, and his school, which seems to get a high number of students selected every year. “I would say so yes. A lot of my friends are also in. Palmer Ridge gets upward of 10 people every year. Which is very impressive of us, which is most of any school in Colorado.”
Congratulations to all those selected!
- Ruby Bales, trombone
- Emma Bloomfield, clarinet
- Caleb Dall, tuba
- Ceci Eversole, clarinet
- Raleigh Eversole, bassoon
- Grace Lusk, baritone sax
- Caleb Ray, tenor sax
- Nate Sapp, euphonium
- Cole Wickert, alto sax
- Chelsea Young, clarinet
