Chesterton Middle School (CMS) music students are again among the finest in the state of Indiana! This year CMS had four students selected for Indiana Junior All-State Ensembles (Band, Jazz Band, and Orchestra). The Junior All-State Ensemble participants are selected from blind audition recordings submitted by 7th, 8th and 9th grade music students all over the state. They are then evaluated several times by a variety of Indiana music educators.
CMS eighth graders Ava Komp and Sarah Bennett were selected for and performed with the 2020 Indiana Junior All-State Band. Also selected for this group was CHS 9th grader Bridget Wisdom.
Selected for the 2020 Junior All-State Jazz Band was 8th grade tenor saxophonist Chloe Wring. An exclusive group of only 22 students, Wring was one of two tenor saxes from the entire state selected. She is also the first CMS student ever selected to this group.
Adrian Dooley was selected for the Junior All-State Orchestra this year. Dooley is the first CMS student to ever perform with this group and was a member in the incredibly competitive cello section.
"Getting into the Junior All-State Ensembles is a huge honor for these students," explains CMS Band Director Vince Arizzi. "Especially as eighth graders, it's very difficult to prepare the audition music well enough to be selected on a blind audition against the best eighth and ninth graders in the state."
The Indiana Junior All-State Ensembles performed as part of the Indiana Music Education Association Professional Development Conference in Ft. Wayne on Friday, January 17 and Saturday, January 18. The directors of the All-State ensembles are some of the finest educators and college professors in the country. Working with conductors of this caliber is one of the benefits of being selected for the All State Ensembles. "Not only are you sitting next to extremely talented musicians and performing challenging music, but you also get to work with a top-notch conductor," says Arizzi. "I'm sure this experience will stick with these students for a long time."