Music performed by the state’s best high school musicians will be heard in various buildings on the University of Missouri campus this weekend.
It is the State High School Music Championship, a music festival of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. In the end, there will be 3939 activities from 346 schools.
The festival was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021, there was a virtual and physical return to last year’s performance.
This is the festival’s 71st year, and other locations are occasionally considered.
Members of the Pierce City High School Drum Ensemble warm up outside the Sinkefield Music Center just before their performance. Assistant Music Director Daniel Walker said all artists must meet the criteria of being exemplary in the Joplin area.
He said students who play clarinet, flute, trumpet, saxophone and a singer have come to the school.
When the time came, the musicians started adjusting and harmonizing their drums and other percussion instruments as they walked down the hall to Sheryl Crow Hall.
At its worst, a problem occurred: a pedal that went up into the eardrum. Fuel orders are booked and savings are applied.
“It was shocking,” Walker said after the performance.
The group performs “Stormbreak” by Jim Casella.
The eardrum screeching pedal was inaudible to the untrained ear, but Walker said he heard it many times.
“I think things are going really well,” senior Cole Perrinon said. He played concert drums and four other drums for the unit.
He said the group had started rehearsing the composition since early March.
I have participated in the national festival for the second time since I came last year.
Love the festive atmosphere.
“You see a much wider range of people,” Cole said. “There could be more competition in terms of talent.”
Carly Reber, an 18-year-old senior, played cymbals, hanging cymbals and woodwinds for this piece.
“I think we did pretty well,” Carly said.
He pointed out that there is a friendly competition in the region.
“There’s a lot of people here, but everyone’s trying to do what they can,” Carly said.
After graduation, she plans to study nursing at Crowder College in Neosho.
In another hallway of the music building, 17-year-old Tyler Simpson of West Plains High School sits on a carpet and calmly plays the drums.
He said he was ready.
“I feel really busy,” Tyler said. “I tell myself that for a reason.”
I had to play the marimba by myself.
According to Assistant Band Director Curtis Stacker, the school had 21 students at the festival.
For some students, it will be their first time at the state fair, while others will meet friends they’ve met on previous visits, Stecker said.
“They absolutely love it,” Stecker said of the campus environment.
He said that the festival provides an opportunity for the growth and development of students.
“No matter what rank you get, you have a chance to come here,” he said.
Inside the Memorial Union, Camdenton High School junior Malachi Deason finished voting as other Camdenton students prepared to vote.
“It was great,” Malachi said of the performance. “I feel very comfortable.”
In Lowry Mall, Big Mo stood next to a giant bass drum to recruit students for MU’s freshman Atlas Stalling Marching Band.
She said she was co-ed with Tau Beta Sigma sorority.
“We do a lot of orchestral stuff,” Stallings said.
Mizo plays the mellophone in a marching band.
Some of the high school students at the festival were able to approach the fraternity members who were accepted into the band and talk about being in the band, he said.
“I’m looking forward to recruiting,” Stallings said.
The most recent year the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau reported attendance in 2019, 9,501 attended, CVB Director Amy Snyder said.
“While I don’t have attendance numbers for 2022, I know the numbers are going down a little bit, but we believe they will continue to grow at an epidemic level,” Snyder said.
The festival’s direct economic impact is estimated to be between $800,000 and $1 million, he said.
Roger McKinney is the Tribune’s education reporter. He can be reached [email protected] or 573-815-1719. He’s on Twitter at @rmkinney9.
This article originally appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune. This weekend at the State High School Music Festival on the MU campus
