Stoney Creek High School Musicians Prepare for Solo and Ensemble

students Alex Glenn and Alex Yu have been working hard on the French horn duet they plan to play at district Solo and Ensemble tonight.

Despite having years of experience playing in ensembles, Glenn and Yu, who both play in the top band at the school, admit they still get nervous when it comes time to play in front of the judge.

“The worst part is waiting right before you go into the judging room,” said Glenn, 15, a sophomore from Rochester.

“Yeah, totally!” Agreed Yu, 16, a junior from Rochester.

Still, they agreed that rewards could come from the pressure.

“It’s fun, it’s hard and it’s always good to hit that new note that you’re working on,” said Glenn.

“It’s just cool to have how you play seen by other people and heard by other people, and then they give you feedback on what you can do better,” said sophomore tuba player Kyle White, 16, of Rochester Hills. “The next time you come back, you just sound even better than you did the year before.”

Glenn, Yu and White will join dozens of other Stoney Creek High School musicians who are playing in a total of 99 different performances throughout Friday and Saturday at this year’s district Solo and Ensemble event in Hartland.

Students will perform, either by themselves or with an ensemble, in front of a judge who critiques the performance and gives the performance a score. The performances that receive the highest possible score advance to the state Solo and Ensemble event, which is held in March.

Stoney Creek High School Director of Bands Eric Kausch, 31, of Troy, says he encourages all of his students to participate in the event. It is not mandatory for students, but Kausch believes it's such an important experience that he waives up to all four mandatory written assignments for the year if students participate in the event.

“I think it’s more valuable … for the kids to play in a group” than it is for them to write a paper about a performance, he said.

“You can do either a duet, a trio, a quintet, a quartet or any variable number of instruments,” explained White, who is known for wearing numerous tuba-themed shirts. “You go to solo ensemble and play for a bunch of judges, and they’ll give you a grade based on how well you play, how you sound overall.

“I picked a really hard solo for me this year,” he added. “I’m just hoping for the best.”

Kausch, a percussionist himself, said his favorite part about solo ensemble is “that the kids get pretty pumped about it and work pretty hard. I think it’s also a good learning experience.”

He adds that the event is “a chance in the school year for them to get feedback from an alto sax person, which I am not. They can give them the whole sheet of comments about alto sax-specific things, which I think is awesome.”

And there’s the satisfaction of working hard on something and having it pay off.

The best part comes “after all the hard work, when you know you’ve gotten everything right and you know you can do it well,” said Yu. “It’s the feeling of satisfaction.”

To view a complete list of this year's Solo and Ensemble participants, click here.