A handful of students have been selected as All-State musicians and will be performing at the Illinois Music Education Association [IMEA] conference in January.

Fifteen junior and senior students from band, orchestra, and choir are travelling to Peoria the weekend of January 28. Students going to the All-State competition came from the all district category, in which they had to go through an audition process.

“You can only audition for one all-state category, even though there are some people that qualify for more than one thing. At the district auditions, you prepare a jazz piece or a classical piece, if you audition for jazz like I did. Then you have to do an improv piece, which you make up on spot, cite reading, and a few tunes that they prepare,” Grant Wallace, senior, said.

Once the auditions are over, people are placed into different bands based on their audition. The two highest jazz bands are Jazz Band One and the combo band. Based off the performance at the district concert is how the All- State musicians are selected, according to Wallace.

One of the most exciting parts of being an All-State musician to Wallace is the idea that his hard work throughout high school has paid off.

“[The most exciting part is] being able to represent my school and have bear pride,” Wallace said. “I also like knowing that I beat out all those other people and am one of the best jazz saxophonists in District 7.”