OMEA Solo and Ensemble Recap
On Saturday, January 18th North Ridgeville High School hosted 26 local schools for the annual Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) District 4 Solo and Ensemble event. With this, there were over 600 events where the North Ridgeville Band students and families ran tasks such as guiding others in the hallway, checking in performers, greeting patrons, serving concessions and helping make this event a success in a variety of ways.
What is Solo and Ensemble? It is an annual event that takes place throughout the country in which students prepare their own music either as a solo or a group. Students pick out pieces of music from a required list that often can double as college audition pieces and classic standards of their instrument. These performances are then evaluated by a judge and scored on a rating system.
Students who perform in Solo and Ensemble greatly benefit as they work diligently on perfecting their piece and working with an accompanist if taking a solo or working with other students if in an ensemble. Students learn time management while working on a piece of music that may be out of their comfort zone.
The North Ridgeville High School Band Program sponsored 14 events to participate in this great day.
- 1 event received ratings of good
- 2 events received ratings of excellent
- 11 events received the top rating of superior
In preparation for this event, the band held a “recital” where each student performed the piece of music they had been working on the past few months in front of the community and their peers. In addition to this, the band also collected monetary and food donations for the North Ridgeville Community Care. From this recital, monetary donations and toiletries were collected and delivered to Community Care.
The North Ridgeville High School Band could not have done this without the help of the North Ridgeville Band Boosters, NRHS Staff, NRHS and NRAC Maintenance Department, NRCS Food Service Department and the NRCS Administration. Representatives from these groups deserve a special thank you for allowing the band program to run this large event.