Last Saturday I went to our region's middle/high school solo and ensemble as Em's trophy husband/Chief Baby Carrier, and,,, man. Solo and Ensemble is just ever and always a vibe and a half. You get to see the entire gamut of the music scene, from tiny babyfaced 12 yos to bearded seniors, all vaguely nervous and dressed twenty six different flavors of nice, plus all of the parents, siblings, and friends. Prime people watching times.
Some important highlights:
Babyfaced they-must-be-12-but-boy-do-they-look-10-year-olds hauling brass instruments around a highschool will never not be a platonic ideal of joy. The size discrepancy; the "whoa this is where the teens are", the "oh my goodness I am so nervous about this", and the "this kid probably wears a tie once a year max" postures; did I mention the giant instruments?? Deeply funny, deeply hopeful; give kids instruments.
There were squads of teens in every corner doing one last quick rehearsal and it was very funny picking out who had fallen into the role of leading. I remember both sides of the coin, being the guy who was like, "okay we gotta have somebody who says 'let's start here'" and also the guy who was like, "yesss someone else is willing to say it".
In one of the rooms, we watched one of Em's choir kids do a solo; the judge was a really good one[1] and had some excellent feedback--working on pronunciation and voicing she was like, "for this vowel you want to use more of your top jaw" instead of soft palate and you know what? That's such a good move when you don't have any context of how much body mechanics discussion a teen has been exposed to. She also discussed stance; I was in the back with Snapdragon in a body sling standing the exact same way going: "hell yeah"[2]
One of the kids was Em's piano student; he had been practicing while Snap was in the womb so we were very interested in how she was gonna react. Despite being an energetic Beethoven and jumping to it in the womb, outside in the too too warm room she was like, "aw yea i know this one" and dozed off to it contentedly
the judges are another funny part--the super strict ones, the ones who are too lenient, the ones who are mean, the ones who give no feedback at all... I do not envy that job at all; how do you judge them within their specific context and age and also across the whole of who you see when often it's expected to score them before you see everyone in your room for the day? ↩︎
specifically it was about unlocking your knees by/and engaging your thighs/glutes. Often described as "dropping your hips", the judge was much more practical: it's like you're getting ready to sit down in a chair, but you just kinda hold right at the point you start ↩︎