The OSSAA String Orchestra Regional contest took place on Nov. 19 at Edmond Santa Fe High School. This is the first contest of the year. The contest consists of an orchestra arriving at a separate school’s stage and performing the songs the conductor has given them. It is not a placing competition, but rather a ranking competition. Orchestras are scored on a scale of one to five, with a score of one being the highest they can achieve.
The conductor for the Edmond Memorial Orchestra, David Koehn, was hopeful and confident about how the students would perform. Koehn took both the philharmonic and symphonic orchestras, with them performing two pieces each.
“They are making good progress,” Koehn said. “They are sounding well, and they have opportunities to reflect daily. They would have started and missed some things, but they are getting those things now. That’s the point of rehearsal.”
Symphonic cellist Annie Compton does not focus solely on the numbers and rank of her music. Instead, Compton views this as a good opportunity to reflect on mistakes and grow for the future competitions and songs. Learning and improving based on the advice from the judges and taking the information into action is her perspective on competitions.
“Mr. Koehn likes to say that he does not put a lot of importance on [the scores],” Compton said. “I think the competition is a really great way for [us] to see how much work we can put into something and get a good result from it.”
Philharmonic cellist Gabriella Smith also has a will to improve from competitions. She has been to many before and learns from each contest. Even having partners to help practice and point out the mistakes for the preparation of their performance.
“I do not even know how many times I have been [to contests], but I have been quite a few times,” Smith said. “I think going to contests has taught me how to be a better performer in that contest setting.”
There are three judges for the philharmonic and symphonic. In symphonic, the orchestra received a perfect score, earning all ones from each judge. Philharmonic received a nearly perfect score, with the judges scoring them one, one and two with an overall score of one.
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