This year at Mason City High School, we had very talented performers try out for All State recognition. Around six thousand kids from around Iowa, so the students trying out faced tough competition. The process that these students go through is rough and very stressful. All-Stater Emma Garrett narrated the audition process of choir and band: “After arriving at your All-State audition location, you prepare yourself for your audition. When the time comes to audition, you head into a practice room for 5 minutes before stepping into the unknown audition room. While in the audition room, you play excerpts from pieces that you have been working on. After your audition is over, you wait for recalls to be posted. Once recalls have been announced, those who make recalls go back into the audition room for some more performing for the judge, and those weren’t called for recalls wait for the final results to be posted. After all of the recalls have finished and the judge has made their decision, a person with a list of results will come into the room where all of the performers congregate and lists the results for everyone to see.”
This year, six of our very talented band members became All-staters, as well as three alternates. The band members are Leah Morrison and Emma Garrett on clarinet, Ben Swegle on French horn, Henry Klatt on bass trombone, Tim Read on tuba, and Christian Gossweiler on percussion. The All-State band alternates are Britta Elsbernd on oboe, Brian VandenBerg on euphonium, and Erika Sloan on tuba. Emma Garrett is a freshman who made it into All-State band this year. Emma says “I had a great first experience at All-State. It was stressful at the time but it helped that I had friends there to talk to, and my clarinet teacher Mr. VonWald was there for support. It was fun to see what it was like to be with a group of highly talented people, whether or not they made it.” Mr. Kramer is the band director and helped the kids succeed. Even though not all the kids who tried out got in, Mr. Kramer said “I’m proud of all the students that auditioned! Their embrace of the audition process helped them become better musicians in the end.”
In the choir All-State auditions, there are about only six hundred spots available in the state of Iowa. Students from MCHS can now claim fifteen of those spots.. Our 2017 choir All-staters are Aden Stroup, Noah Murray, Marcus Buttweiler, Noah Hoffman and Derek Johnson as tenors, Amelia Ouverson, Elise Obermire, and Kylie Hansen as sopranos, Natalia Cadena, Katheelyn Montes, Natasha Orton, and Kinzie Johanns for Alto, and Nathan Elsbernd, Jake Palmer, and Skyler Lee for Bass.
Skyler Lee has been a part of choir All-State for four years now. He said “being a part of All-State for four years has been really an amazing experience and a humbling one. It’s really important to me because music is such a big part of my life…every year I got into All-State, it just reaffirms that it is even more important to me.” When being a part of All-state they all have to work really hard to improve. Skyler worked on his vocal range and tone quality over the past years to ensure success. Skyler suggests that future All-Staters try to not be nervous when they walk in. Future All State hopefuls should walk into the audition treating it like a performance, not just an audition. Show them that you love doing what you do, singing. Mrs. Bouska and Mr. Everist are the choir directors that has led our All-States to success this year and years previous. They trained hard for their auditions and Mrs. Bouska said, “All of our students were well prepared, poised, professional and supportive of others. They represented themselves, their school, and their community with dignity!”.