While band and choir usually go to state performances each year, this year more people participated.

Band traveled to Pittsburg State University to perform but also to see Wycliffe Gordon, an award winning jazz musician. 

“We received straight I’s, the highest rating, from all of the judges, but watching Wycliffe was an amazing experience as well,” junior Alex Evans said. 

With the band performance at Pittsburg State University, they received high ratings, but it meant more than that to them.

“While I was nervous at first, afterwards we acknowledged that was the best we had ever done,and we were all ecstatic,” Evans said. 

While combined choirs will be attending,  a few people also competed in an All-State performance and performed with other choral singers from across Kansas. 

“I got what I wanted out of All-State,” junior Emma Neuschafer said. “I thought I held my own sound very well, but the others around me did very well, too.”

Neuschafer spent a weekend memorizing music and working with the other members and other directors. 

“You take the best of the best from Kansas, put them in a room with amazing directors and give them three days to perfect their performance, and you get an amazing sound,” Neuschafer said. “I was really impressed at how well they could memorize all six of our pieces with just that little amount of time.”

Neuschafer had the opportunity to speak with representatives from some of the colleges she was eyeing. 

“There were colleges who had come to see the performance, but also to set up booths that we were given time to visit,” Neuschafer said.