In the orchestra room at Skyline, the sound of practicing instruments and songs has filled the air for these mouths as the orchestra students have been preparing for their biggest performance of the year. The Skyline Orchestra was getting ready to compete at the state level, an opportunity that hadn’t been had for awhile, showing all their months of dedication and hard work from every member. 

The state orchestra brought together all the top student orchestras from across Utah and gave them the chance to perform all their challenging pieces and be scored by professional judges. For many students, this wasn’t only a competition, but also a chance to showcase their growth and passion for music. It’s when all of their effort throughout the school year came together in one big performance.

According to many orchestra members, preparing for state required lots of hard work and effort both in and outside of class. Students spent weeks working on their technique and tune to perform as a Skyline Orchestra group. “We’ve been working on this for a really long time,” said Mia Baker, a Freshman Skyline Orchestra student. “It’s not just about playing  all of our pieces correctly; it’s kinda just being a team and a group through months of all our work and lots of practice.” Rehearsals often meant repeating difficult sections over and over and making sure every instrument went together to create the piece.

For many orchestra members, the state festival was both exciting and even scary. With the nerves of performing in front of many different judges, it was both hard and stressful. Students say it motivated them to do their best and try even harder through practices. “It’s definitely stressful,” another student, Elliott Jepson, a Freshman in orchestra, said. Jepson shared that it’s “really rewarding and so cool to see how much we’ve improved over the year and with our practice.”

As the competition approached, the Skyline Orchestra continued to rehearse, tune, and practice their music to show their best work.  When it was finally time to compete, Skyline excelled. Overall, the orchestra placed fifth and first in Large Wood Ensembles. Many students not only care about the results but also about what got them. Jepson says, for her, “Prepping for state and everything has already been really meaningful, and showing all our practice as an orchestra and everything personally I and we have done and everything we do, so for me, I already know we have done pretty well.”