Four performing at All-State this weekend

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Iowa High School Music Association All-State Music Festival auditions are not a stroll through the park.

A student doesn’t just show up, perform a piece of music, then sit back and wait to hear from the judges.

“You get your stuff at the end of July and you prepare at least an hour a day, for three months, just to get everything done,” said senior Carter Johanningmeier, who will be making his second trip to all-state this weekend.

Senior Ruby Peterson, junior Darian Cleveland and junior Nathan Shultz will join Johanningmeier at the Iowa High School Music Association 2018 All-State Music Festival, held this weekend in Ames, starting today (Friday).

All four were all accepted for the Iowa High School Music Association 2018 All-State Music Festival at auditions held in Hampton last month. Peterson and Shultz were each accepted in chorus, Peterson as an alto and Schultz as a bass. Cleveland was accepted in the orchestra on string bass, and Johanningmeier was accepted on cornet in band.

“These four epitomize what we would want the audition process to look like,” said Charles City band director Jake Gassman. “The dedication and time they put in, the foresight and preparation — they understood and are great role models for our younger kids.”

Each of the four young musical artists practiced for three months on music selected by the all-state directors, and each was at Hampton-Dumont High School for 12 hours of auditions, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The day included an initial audition and as many as two recalls.

Cleveland said her work on that day started much earlier than that.

“I was here at the school at 5:30 a.m. that morning to practice when the excerpts were released,” she said. She then practiced for nearly two hours until the bus left for auditions.

Peterson said vocalists, too, started getting prepared early that morning before the bus left. Shultz backed Peterson up.

“You come in, in the morning, and a lot of people’s voices aren’t fully ready. So we practice and it doesn’t sound good, because your voices aren’t ready,” Shultz said. “We probably practiced and ran through our stuff three times. We knew our stuff, we knew we needed to get our voices warmed up, but we didn’t want to over-do it.”

Shultz said in the days before the auditions, he went online to find natural ways to reduce inflammation in the throat.

“I ended up eating a lot of broccoli,” he said.

Only about 17 percent of students who audition are selected to participate in this weekend’s event, which will include rehearsals in Ames before the ensembles perform at Iowa State University.

Auditions are different for the different musical disciplines. Instrumental band learns the music they’re going to play for auditions at 5 a.m., and also gets new music to play at the festival once accepted. Orchestra prepares eight excerpts at auditions, and two are chosen to be played at the festival.

For vocalists,  the music used to prepare for auditions is the same music they’ll sing at the concert.

“These guys all had all the audition materials memorized weeks before,” Gassman said. “They’d been practicing so much, since July. If you’re going to be an all-stater, you pretty much have everything memorized.”

Gassman said that while the all-state process covers a few months, the process of becoming an all-stater is developed over years.

“That’s something that these guys have been working on since they’ve been playing music,” he said.

All the all-staters said the process at all-state auditions can be intimidating the first time.

“It’s never guaranteed,” said Peterson, who is also making a return trip to the festival. “You have to come to terms with that when you audition. It can really be heartbreaking when you get in your junior year and not make it in your senior year.”

“I really wanted to make it last year, but didn’t quite make it in,” Cleveland added. “Having the experience from last year, I knew exactly what the audition was going to be. I knew exactly how to plan out my day. Last year helped me this year at auditions.”

The experience from the previous year was helpful to Johanningmeier as well.

“The week of auditions, you don’t practice as much because you don’t want to burn yourself out before auditions,” said Johanningmeier. “At that point, the music is just a formality. I don’t think I even looked at my stand once during the audition.”

Each of their instructors said the preparation and sacrifice the students put in is inspiring.

“The amount of practice these kids put in — they sacrifice their time with friends, they sacrifice their family time,” said Charles City instrumental director Bethany Rhine. “They get in extra lessons on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. It’s a big commitment, and it’s very rewarding. I look forward to seeing how they keep being rewarded for their efforts in high school.”

Vocal music director Derek Sturtevant agreed.

“The talent does account for some, but the majority of it is the time they put in. They put in so many hours, and that’s something we can hold up to the younger students as an example,” Sturtevant said. “Not just these four, but all the kids who auditioned learned so much through the process. Even if you don’t make it, the growth you see in these kids is so worth it.”

“They knew what they had to do, they did what they had to do, and they were awarded for it,” added Gassman.

The all-staters were all grateful for the extra effort put in by their instructors.

“The flexibility of our directors help,” said Shultz. “They make time and find time to help us prepare.”

“I think that a lot of preparation is all thanks to the directors,” added Peterson. “They’re the ones who have pushed us year after year to keep auditioning.”

As for how they perform this year, Shultz referred to a vocal performance last year, in which he had some problems with his voice due to illness and didn’t sound as good as he should have.

“My biggest goal this year is just to perform my best,” he said. “I plan on eating a lot of broccoli.”