Students in Cannon Falls compete in an enormous array of activities-athletics, speech, and, surprisingly enough band and choir. On April 9th, both the band and choir made the trek to Lake City for a contest. This contest, known as solo ensemble, is an annual event that places an individual’s abilities before a judge. Earlier in the year, both the band and choir broke up individually or in small groups. These groups selected music to perform for this particular contest, and oftentimes practiced their music in class. As the contest date drew near, the intensity of these rehearsals increased as each group sought the best possible grade at the contest.

The contest works as follows: upon arriving at the site of the contest, the groups prepare to perform their pieces. This may entail short warm ups, either singing or preparing their instruments. Oftentimes, these warm ups happen in the host school’s gymnasium, so there is a great deal of noise at any given time. Once the groups feel prepared, they wait, usually restlessly, for their scheduled performance time. When their time comes, they go to a room, usually a classroom, and perform for a single judge with a grading scale, based out of forty points. Details such as rhythm, intonation, and style are accounted into the judge’s final grade. Then the group or individual is given a rating based on a grading scale: fair, good, excellent, or superior. Fair is 21 points or lower, good is 22-27, excellent is 28-34, and superior is 35-40 points. The performers are then critiqued, and their score is posted in a hallway later for all to see. This year, every group or solo in both the band and the choir scored an excellent or superior, earning high marks throughout the day.