In mid-October of 2024, New Trier High School students who auditioned for the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) found out if they’d been selected to play in the ILMEA district festival (Nov. 16 for jazz musicians and Nov. 9 for everyone else) in district No. 7, which makes up the Northern Illinois suburbs. 

Each music department (choir, orchestra, band, etc) from each school is only allowed to have a certain number of kids audition. The exact number is different for each department. Even if a student is not chosen to play at the festival, just auditioning is an accomplishment.

“I have to screen students even just to nominate them,” New Trier Band Director Matt Temple says.  

These days, all auditions for ILMEA are submitted as YouTube videos, so all the music teachers have to do is submit the links for their students.  

Temple says typically five to 10 band students each year are accepted into the district festival. 

“It really varies from year to year depending on how the other schools do and how competitive any given instrument is, because you’re competing by instrument,” he says.  

Audition requirements vary across music departments, but generally, students have required pieces that change each year and are chosen by the district to demonstrate their proficiency in singing or playing an instrument.  

Students auditioning sometimes need to improvise.

“Most of the jazz musicians have to show their improvisation skills,” Jazz Instrumental Director Nic Meyer says. “There’s a background track, and then they improvise on that and most of our students are pretty sophisticated improvisers, so they typically do pretty well on that part of the audition.” 

In the jazz instrumental division, an etude, a piece of music that targets specific skills, is among the required pieces.  

“They’re going to be judged on how accurately they’re playing the piece, but also how informed is their style,” Meyer says. “Do they really sound like a jazz musician playing the etude, or do they sound like an uninformed musician playing the etude?”

The selected students will perform in the district festival on Saturday, Nov. 9, with top students from other high schools. The jazz district festival—for jazz instrumental and vocal jazz students only—is on Saturday, Nov. 16.  

“It’s pretty competitive,” Choir Director Amy Branahl says about the selectivity of the district festivals. “I would say district No. 7 is one of the most competitive districts in the state.”  

Branahl said New Trier last year sent seven people into the senior chorus of the district festival and 13 people into vocal jazz.

At the district festivals, students will be exposed to various other student musicians, giving them more rigorous competition. 

“Our district goes from Evanston all the way to the state line, so it’s a pretty big area,” Meyer says. “The students that make the district jazz ensembles will be playing with the other top students from all those other highschools.”   

The All-State conference, hosting nine districts in total, will take place in Peoria, Illinois from Wednesday, Jan. 29, to Saturday, Feb. 1. 

“The kids who place the highest in their auditions at the district festival then automatically advance to the state festival,” Temple says.

According to Branahl, although the All-State conference finds students pretty busy, it’s also a fun experience for teachers and students alike.

”We get to go down together with all the band, orchestra, and jazz students, and we support each other at each other’s concerts,” Branahl says. “You sing all day, or you play music all day, so it’s pretty full on, but it’s really fun for all the students.”