D228 Students Make All-District And All-State Choir

TINLEY PARK, IL — Bremen High School District 228 had 11 students participate in the Illinois Music Educators Association (ILMEA) all-district music festival this year.

The ILMEA advocates for universal access to music education, provides professional development for music educators and gives musical experiences for Illinois learners by licensed music educators. The programs are highly competitive to get into.

The district said this is a "very prestigious honor" for any choral student to be selected into. Over 3,000 students from area schools alone auditioned to be selected into one of the featured ensembles.

District 228 students selected to participate include:

• Kayleon Ashie, Tinley Park High School
• Abigail Newtoff, Tinley Park High School
• Alicia Kanapilly, Tinley Park High School
• Tavion Drake, Hillcrest High School
• Laila Powers-Kinder, Bremen High School
• Cian Martinez, Bremen High School
• Julia McMahon, Bremen High School
• Destiny Skelnik, Oak Forest High School
• Mayweather Shorter, Oak Forest High School
• Brenden Infante, Oak Forest High School
• Nicholas Zavala, Oak Forest High School

D288 said in addition, two students from Oak Forest High School were selected for the ILMEA All-State Choir. These students are Destiny Skelnik and Brenden Infante. The two will sing with the All-State Choir in the All-State Music Festival which usually takes place in May in Peoria.

Infante said his experience auditioning was challenging. From correcting the pitches, to improvising scatting, I learned a lot from the experience and grew musically from it. Once I learned that I was chosen to participate in it, I was extremely excited," he said.

Infante said the festival gave him a lot of mixed feelings. He said that although it was fun, he found it to be extremely educational.

"For the Concert Choir seminar, I felt that I learned a bit from it, like how musical groups are put together, how they are deployed in different places, and about what techniques tenors use for hitting high notes, but I felt I learned more about the person who was holding the seminar than about how to improve musically," he said.

Skelnik said her instructors in the program provided her with physical ways to improve singing, whether it be for warming up or a performance. She said in another class she was able to learn multiple rhythm exercises and vocal jazz warm-ups.

"Overall, preparing for this event was helpful for me to hold myself accountable for learning my pieces almost completely independently," she said. "I am glad I took part in this festival and I am excited to use my new exercises to improve my singing in the future."