IMEA Festival: District 5

On Monday, October 12th, junior and senior high kids from all over this district came to Effingham grade and high schools to audition for places in the band, chorus, and orchestra. Each musician had to prepare a set of audition material...This ranges from scales to etudes to music excerpts.

The kids who make the cut get to participate in a program called IMEA (Illinois Music Education Association) District 5. There is a junior and senior division for each branch of musicality. On Saturday, November 21st, all participants go to EIU and have a full day of rehearsals, before the concerts that night. The concerts take place in either Doudna Music Center in the Dvorak Hall, or in the Martin Luther King Jr. Union Hall, in the Union Ballroom or in the Grand Ballroom. It is an opportunity for top placed musicians in high school to make it to all-state. Making it to all-state for a musician is an honor, and it's the equivalent to making it to state in sports for a basketball player.

The competition is cut-throat, and for all musicians (other than strings who are allowed to go as sophomores due to low numbers) are eligible once they become a junior. You must make the top percent of your instrument or voice range to go. The experience of IMEA is a great one. You learn so much, and you are exposed to kids your own age who share a love for music, as you do. I wish luck to all those who made it this year, especially to those of us from St.A :)

--Cheslynn Litke