State Festival 2019 Results

Four high school musicians from Cascade qualified for the State Music Festival May 4. Due to out-of-state-travel and illness only one was able to perform at the State Festival. Even though Missoula people organized the festival it 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.

Our soloist was an awesome student to take to an event like this. We left the school at 6:30 am to get ready for our morning performance and she 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 wonderful group of high school musicians here at Cascade. Their musicianship and leadership really help our groups and all the younger players.

Jean Blackman was our talented musician at the State Festival this year.

Mr. Skogley is VERY proud of our musicians. These students perform well and are great representatives of our fine school. You will get to you hear Jean's solo at the Spring concert on May 14th.

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 musician on a job well done!!