This past Saturday, March 5, 2011, several members of the Jesuit Ursuline Ranger Band displayed their musical talents at the Texas Private School Music Educator’s Association (TPSMEA) Solo & Ensemble competition. The competition featured musicians from private high schools in the “North Region” of Texas, basically anything above Austin. Luckily for the Jesuit instrumentalists, though (and unlucky for those from the Southern parts), the competition took place in the good old DFW metroplex –at the Greenhill School in Addison, roughly ten minutes away from JCP. The Solo & Ensemble competition is an event that gives private high school musicians the chance to show off their skills by playing a solo piece by themselves (with a piano accompanist) or by playing a piece in a small ensemble. The musician or group of musicians prepares their pieces weeks in advance, then performs them for a judge at the contest. After listening to the performance, the judge gives the soloist or ensemble a rating of 1, 2, 3, or 4. Earning a 1 means that your piece sounded excellent, and a 2 means it was pretty good. A 3 is average and a 4, well…if you manage to pull that off then you probably should never touch a musical instrument again in your life. Thankfully, the members of the Jesuit band represented our school well, as 13 of the 17 performances earned the coveted 1 rating, with the remaining 4 performances receiving solid 2’s. Among those receiving the 1 rating was the Jesuit Band’s percussion section who, as the only ensemble from Jesuit to enter the contest, played a new take on Styx’s “Foolin’ Yoursel.f” The performance featured a wide range of percussion apparatus, from traditional concert instruments like marimbas and vibraphones to a drum set, the widely admired staple of rock music. The fact that the song featured so many different instruments meant that everyone had to work hard to fit into the group’s overall sound. “Working with a group is much more challenging than working solo, because you have to blend in with everyone else’s parts,” said junior percussionist Ben Warren. One of the members of that ensemble, freshman percussionist Daniel Ahn, impressed the judges during his solo performance by playing a difficult four-mallet song on the marimba, a piece that requires the performer to wield two mallets in each hand, instead of the traditional one. It wasn’t just percussionists, who impressed the judges either; several wind players earned good remarks, including junior saxophone player Justin Danko, who earned a 1 for his solo, titled “Adagio and Allegro.” “(Solo and Ensemble) is special because it takes many weeks of practice prior to the performance,” remarked Danko. “Also, some of the best musicians in the area are there.” Special is indeed the perfect word to describe the competition. It allows players who might be overshadowed in a full 80-person concert band to display their individual talents, and it lets students working together in ensembles form a musical bond together. All those involved in the contest enjoyed some aspect of the competition. “I enjoyed playing alongside a great accompanist, (Jesuit’s own) Ms. Ann Morton,” said Mr. Danko. And of course, people enjoyed receiving good ratings from the judges. “Since a lot of percussionists were awarded 1’s on both of their solos and ensembles,” said Mr. Warren, “I guess you could describe us as (to borrow a phrase from the one and only Charlie Sheen) ‘bi-winning.’”
