State Festival 2016 Results

Four high school musicians from Cascade went to the State Music Festival May 7, and earned Superior (I) or Excellent (II) ratings. The festival was held at Helena High School and featured hundreds of musicians from the western half of Montana who qualified by earning Superior ratings at District Music Festivals. Student performances are judged by highly skilled music teachers and ratings are given on the merit of their performances. The performers are also given tips and help to improve their singing or playing, like getting a private lesson with a pro. It is a great learning experience. Most adjudicators at State festivals are from college music departments, although many excellent public school teachers are used as well.

A big THANK YOU goes to our accompanist Wendy McKamey!

This was an awesome group of students to take to an event like this. They were on time (as expected) for everything, even leaving the school at 6:20 am to get ready for an 8:00 am performance. The students performed in a professional manner. Like always, some adjudicators score tougher than others. Getting the best scores is a good thing but the learning that takes place from this whole process and experience is the ultimate goal. We also see some adjudicators that are very personable and some who have a more gruff demeanor. They all have the same goal of helping our musicians improve, there are just a lot of different personalities involved.

We have a small but wonderful group of high school musicians here at Cascade. Their musicianship and leadership really helps our groups and all the younger players.

Our talented musicians at the State Festival were:

• Senior - Lydia O'Brien
• Sophomores - Trent Cox, Josh Pepos
• Freshman - Mikayla Douglas
• Sophomore Zach Douglas also qualified for state, but a schedule conflict kept him from performing in Helena....

Mr. Skogley is VERY proud of these musicians. These students performed well and were great representatives of our fine school. These are the same performers you heard at the Spring concert on May 2nd.

The ratings used at Music Festivals are:
I A superior performance - Outstanding in nearly every detail II An excellent performance - Minor defects III A good performance - lacking finesse and/or interpretetion IV A fair performance - basic weaknesses V A poor performance - unsatisfactory

Here are the results of our Festival events, listed in chronological order of performance.

Congratulations to our musicians on a job well done!!