Spending every class for the past nine weeks working on that one certain piece can seem tedious, but to finally perform it can leave one feeling accomplished.

Band and orchestra students competed at the District Solo and Ensemble Contest at the end of February. At this contest, which students that would advance to state were determined.

Both band and orchestra have been practicing these pieces for the last nine weeks so being prepared for the contest was something that was achieved.

“I know that sometimes they [the students] were just overwhelmed in other classes but since they put the music together mostly themselves with very minimal instruction from me on how the music actually works and the amount of work they did themselves was very impressive,” said band and orchestra director Kelli Taylor.

Senior trombonist Amoree Wagner will be returning to state for the fourth time in her music career, although she was afraid that might not have been the case this year.

“I was surprised getting one on my solo because I thought I did badly because I had forgotten some parts of it after memorizing it and doing that in front of a judge is awful,” Wagner said.

Thanking the fact that they switched their piece last minute, senior Tien Huynh will also be advancing to state along with her group for the Vivaldi string choir.

“We felt a little unprepared because we switched pieces two weeks before the contest but we ended up on top,” Huynh said.

The following students earned Superior scores on their solos and are state-bound:

Amoree Wagner, trombone solo; Jeremiah Jacobson, sax solo; Chase Leach, violin solo; Victor Nguyen, violin solo and Jackson Burnette, bass solo.

The following ensembles earned Superior scores and are state-bound:

Vivaldi string choir: Victor Nguyen, Ariani Fife, Chase Leach, Wendy Liu, Gabrielle Jones, Khiem Ngo, Tien Huynh, Jordan McFadden, Zohaib Thayani, Alessio Hall, Cooper Phillips, Jackson Burnette, Dania Kennedy;

“Victory Squad” violin quartet: Victor Nguyen, Chase Leach, Wendy Liu, Ariani Fife;

Tchaikovsky quartet: Tien Huynh, Gabrielle Jones, Jordan McFadden, Khiem Ngo;

Violin duet: Khiem Ngo and Chase Leach

The following students earned a Superior but are not state eligible:

Wendy Liu, violin solo

The following students received Excellent scores on their pieces:

Maddie VanSwearingen, trombone solo; Joseph LaSala, trumpet solo; Cody Cummins, flute solo; Gwen Herrada, marimba solo; Joshua Buchanan, marimba solo; Lydia Sharpe, bass clarinet solo and Alessio Hall, cello solo

The following ensembles earned Excellent scores on their pieces:

String trio: Dania Kennedy, Tien Huynh and Zohaib Thayani;

Violet Parrott, Lilia Herrera and Aaron McKinstry, clarinet trio;

Violet Parrott, Cody Cummins, Lydia Sharpe, mixed woodwind trio;

Jeremiah Jacobson, Lilia Herrera, Addie Zahn, mixed woodwind trio;

Joseph LaSala, Evan Reynolds, Amoree Wagner, Maddie VanSwearingen, and Fatima Jaime, brass quintet.

The state-bound students will compete at OSU in mid-April with students from all over Oklahoma.