Scribbling notes onto her sheet music, Emma Kavalec, junior, gets ready to meet up with her ISSMA ensemble group. Also performing a solo tomorrow, Emma believes the hardest part has been time management. Over the past several years, the Regional level ISSMA competition has been held at MHS with time slots throughout the day for private performances. 

The instrumental solo and ensemble will be held tomorrow, while vocal and piano will be Feb. 4. 

Students can choose to compete from group one to group five, with the former being the most challenging and rigorously judged. If a player receives gold in the group one category, they will move onto the State competition held at Northview Middle School in Indianapolis Feb. 25. 

With an increase in the number of students performing this year and over 1000 performances taking place throughout the day, dozens of volunteers and members of MHS band are needed to help organize. All classrooms throughout the school need to be set up as performance rooms and room numbers and times need to be communicated to over 40 other directors. 

“Practicing for me always starts off with a tone warm up,” Emma said. “I always try to make sure I start off with my best sound so I’m able to apply it to the rest of my practice. Lastly, I work on whatever piece I need too. Whether that’s my trip piece I’m doing or my solo, I try to fit both of them into my practice time.”