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The Kennedy White Whale: PMEA All-State ORCHESTRA

Yep, another PMEA year has come and gone.  And this year, we had a new winner.  Glo, after hours and hours, and have I mentioned HOURS of practicing, advanced to All-State festival for orchestra, a feat that had not been accomplished by her siblings.

She also made it to Regional Chorus, but since she had already auditioned for, and advanced to All-State on violin, she didn't put much time into practicing her chorus music.  In all honesty, who can blame her? :-)



It wasn't perfectly easy though.  When Glo auditioned at Districts (the first level) on first violin, she was seated eleventh chair, which meant she didn't automatically move forward to Regionals.  She had to reaudition (along with seven other kids) for three spots in second violin.  I had never been so thankful that she and I had worked on that erudition piece, despite the fact that we didn't think she would need it.  It was an excerpt from an unheard piece, and in the end, we could only find a recording of it on YouTube by some South American teenager.  Thankfully, she moved on.

There's nothing like fear and disappointment to motivate a musician, so for Regionals, Glo gave everything to practicing.  Two hours a day of just PMEA music.  After her audition, she texted us all and told us that she didn't think she did very well (she'd actually needed to restart one of the excerpts).  Oh my goodness, I was praying so hard for her to just get a seat.  Even last seat.

The next day, she texted us with the news:  she had gotten FIRST CHAIR!  Obviously, Glo isn't very good at evaluating her own performances! :-)

And at All-State, she got seated better than almost every State High musician, and she out sat all but one of the violinists that she beat at Regionals.  It's kind of like running your second marathon:  it proves that your first victory wasn't a fluke.

We are so proud of her!

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