The WSMA (Wisconsin School Music Association) District Solo and Ensemble Festival is coming up March 2, 2024, and students are wrapping up the final touches on their pieces. Solo and Ensemble is an annual music festival where high school students can perform by themselves or in a group to get feedback and a score from judges.

Senior Kiana Thompson has been working on her violin solo since September. However, that’s not the only thing she’s performing for Solo and Ensemble. “I have five [events], I have a violin solo, a bass solo, a quartet ensemble, Alternative Strings group, and the Symphonic Orchestra group,” she said.

Kiana plays violin in Symphonic Orchestra and upright bass in Symphonic Winds and Percussion. “This is the first year I’m doing two solos, one for violin and one for bass, so that’s definitely an added amount of practice and stress, but I got started on my violin solo nice and early, so I’m feeling pretty prepared for that one […] but my bass solo was kind of a last minute addition so I’m feeling a little stressed for that,” she said.

Though it’s common for students to feel stressed about performing, there are many enjoyable aspects of Solo and Ensemble. “It’s kind of stressful but in a fun way,” Kiana said. “It’s honestly more fun seeing and hearing everyone else’s performances than actually performing mine, I much prefer performing with my quartet or in a group setting, but it’s a very rewarding experience.”

Students also get to grow in their musical abilities based on the judges’ comments. “I like seeing what the judges critique you on,” sophomore Nora O’Leary said. “It’s always fun to see when you have more than one event for the same instrument if they critique you on the same things each time or if there are different things.”

Nora plays violin in Symphonic Orchestra and euphonium in SWaP. She has seven events this year for Solo and Ensemble. “I have a violin solo, a string choir, Alternative Strings, a duet, a quartet, a euphonium solo and a brass ensemble,” she said. “SWaP isn’t performing anything as a whole because our group is too big, so it’s split up into groups like sax choir, brass choir, things like that.”

Scores are ranked from 1 to 4, with 1 being the best. In some cases, if a judge wants to recognize a student for an outstanding performance, the student gets scored a 1*, meaning they get to advance to State Solo and Ensemble.

“I definitely want to make it to State for my violin solo, quartet and Symphonic,” Kiana said. “I don’t really have hopes to go to State for Alternative Strings or my bass solo, those ones are more just kind of for fun, but whatever happens, happens, it’s going to be fun either way.” Both Nora and Kiana have made it to State before, and hope to go again this year.

Students participating in Solo and Ensemble get to experience a positive learning environment and encouragement from their peers. “Everyone’s really supportive no matter if you do well or not,” Kiana said. “It’s a really rewarding experience.”