The music department here at Elder is regarded as one of the better departments in the Cincinnati area. Between the many instrumental and vocal groups, the students’ love for music is evident.

Every year, the Ohio Music Education Association acknowledges this love of music held not only by Elder students, but also by students from four of the fifteen districts across Ohio in the Solo and Ensemble competition, hosted for the past four years right here at Elder.

This event welcomes one thousand instrumental and vocal music students from school programs as well as private music tutors. Classrooms all over campus are converted to small performing halls, with performances running from eight o’clock in the morning to around three o’clock in the afternoon.

Musicians are given a rating of 1-5, with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest. The judges are music professionals from all over southern Ohio. The president of the OMEA was even scheduled to attend Elder High School this year.

This competition is a wonderful opportunity for students to gain experience in front of audiences,  to learn how to accept and use criticism, and also how to reap the benefits of hard work.

This year’s competition was unfortunately canceled due to the harsh winter conditions, which would have made the competition a logistical nightmare considering the mass of humanity which would be visiting our campus the day of the competition.

Feelings are varied regarding the cancellation of this competition, which is for many one of the highlights of their music calendar.

Ms. Schad and Mr. Anderson made the final decision to cancel the competition. This decision was not made lightly, as the competition is a large undertaking requiring hours and hours of work. An e-mail was sent to all participants of the competition explaining the reasons of the cancellation:

     Senior Jason Geis, who was scheduled to perform in the competition as a solo and as a member of an ensemble,  shared his thoughts on the cancellation: “It was a relief because we were rushing to finish learning our music, and our pieces weren’t as good as they probably could have been, but on the other hand the time we did spend on our music was wasted.”

Not wanting students to feel cheated of the opportunity to perform their pieces, the music department has decided to have a recital for all Elder and Seton band and vocal groups on March 6^th at 7:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose room in the Schaeper Center. This recital will also coincide with the steel drum concert, which was also canceled due to weather.

Support all of the musicians and their hard work by attending this recital.