CMEA Music Competition

Two years ago, I started my violin class in school. Since then, it has been nothing but screeching, squeaking, and all the usual sounds of a child playing a violin. Until now. On Friday after school, I participated, along with my class, in a regional competition, the CMEA Competition. There were many self-depricating jokes and about how we would kill the judges and be disqualified from the competition, and the judges' notes were actually their last wills and testaments. We also talked about how much better the other bands and orchestras were. Eventually the time came to head to the practice room. We began to practice, and, with worried faces, eventually stopped and headed to the back door of the gym. The setup was terrifying; the judges at three tables in front of us, the audience right behind them, our empty seats waiting for us to sit in and perform in. We sat down, tuned our instruments, and prepared to play our first piece, "Dance of the Samodivi" by Soon Hee Newbold. We began to play, and we sounded all right and I lika do the cha cha. We eventually finished, and heard the judges talking to their tape recorders, saying things like "...captured the mood," and "...those are hard notes to play." Our confidence began to rise, and we then started our second piece, "A Knight's Quest" by Soon Hee Newbold. We also sounded quite good once again. When we ended the piece, we heard the judges saying positive comments once again. Finally, the piece de resistance, "Engines of Resistance" by Larry Clark, the only one we were using the Band for. We started, and the booming sound of the drums and band instruments accompanying the strings sounded amazing. We finished with a huge note. Everything had gone amazingly. When we saw our score, we had second place only to a perfect score. Two superiors and an excellent. We did better than a High School full Orchestra! We were all extremely gladdened that we didn't kill anyone, and, as an added bonus, we did well. I am very glad I went to the competition, and hope that I'll continue to play as well as I did.