2024 All-State Music Festival

The 2024 Allstate Music Festival celebrated excellence in musicianship from Thursday, November 21 to Saturday, November 23, at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames with 16 Northwest students for the band and orchestra and 15 for the choir attending.

Drive is a common idea that many struggle to find. Not only is it needed to work towards goals and succeed, but it is also a skill that has to be learned through experience. If there is one thing that the students who audition for and make the Allstate Music Festival have in common, it is their endless drive and determination to fulfill a goal they have set for themselves as early as their freshman year of high school. 

Their drive is not only found in the hours they spend practicing every day but the strength they have to continue working toward that goal. The competitive, prestigious selection of the festival pushes these students to perform to the best of their ability and even more. This demonstrates relentless passion and drive on a level that is nothing short of inspirational. 

The festival performance features a band, orchestra and choir, each of which performs respective pieces and patriotic pieces as a group. The band consists of wind and percussion players, while the orchestra is composed of mostly string instruments. Within the orchestra, top wind and percussion players are chosen to perform alongside these strings. Meanwhile, the Allstate choir is made up of 600 students of all voice parts. 

Although the festival does not occur until late November, both band and choir students begin their preparation the minute music is released in mid-July. For instrumentalists, this means reviewing basics like scales and learning new pieces like provided etudes and a solo of their choice. Vocalists are given the music they will perform at the festival from the start and learn all five pieces from top to bottom with the addition of two patriotic songs. During the summer, students can attend various camps and programs to help them learn their music alongside rigorous individual practice. This practice continues from the summer into the increasingly busy school year. 

Mr. Daubitz, director of Northwest Singers, Glee Club, Wulf Choir and EOS, expressed, “We’re really fortunate with the kids we have and the effort they put in. It’s a testament to their preparation because it’s a process that is completely outside of the school day.”

Similarly, Senior Ceara Knowles, four-time Allstate flute player and principal flutist in last year’s orchestra, stated, “I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself to be good, so I would say I have a pretty good practice schedule, especially since this year since I don’t have a third block I can practice for all two hours.”

As school begins, many choir students discover if they will be allowed to audition for the festival. Northwest is allowed to send 28 choir students, and typically, many more are interested in auditioning for the festival group. This means that the choir directors have to host their own auditions to decide the groups of those they will send to Atlantic High School at the end of November. These chosen students are sorted into groups of four and will perform in these arrangements at their initial audition. Within the band program, however, the ratio of those interested in auditioning and the amount Northwest can send is around the amount interested. This means the process at school consists of informational meetings, one-on-ones with the band directors and mock auditions with peers and professionals brought in to assist. 

Abi Steenhard, a sophomore at Northwest and two-year Allstate Band clarinetist, commented, “I enjoy the preparation in the summer, but once you get closer, it’s just a matter of not knowing how good other people are. It’s stressful because you don’t know how good you’re doing compared to everyone else.”

Knowles shared, “I’m really superstitious. So I have a lucky dress [and] shoes I’ve worn all four years. It’s not very cute, but it is what it is.”

Avi Ganti, a three-time Allstate choir student, explained, “It’s just a lot of waiting, which is kind of the worst part, at least for me [because] that’s when the doubt starts.”

After initial auditions, students discover if they were rejected, had to audition a second time or made the group right away. These results trigger numerous emotions not only for the students but also for the directors. For some, this three-month process is put to a short end, and for others, there is a call and need to continue the hard work.

Steenhard explained, “I was really nervous for all my friends, especially my brother, because his [results] didn’t get posted until after mine even though they were supposed to be before. It was fun to see who got in, but then it made me more nervous because I knew mine was coming next.”

Likewise, sophomore Paige Gibbs, who made the Allstate Choir for the first time this year, remarked, “The soprano list didn’t come out until very late, so it was also hard because I was seeing that other people who I thought should have made it weren’t making it and so that made me more nervous.”

After the second audition, students chosen for this recall can either be rejected, make the group, or be deemed an alternate. The role of alternate is given to students who have the capability to be in the group but did not make the cut purely because of the amount of other eligible musicians who auditioned. Regardless of the outcomes, both directors and most students stress that the result is only a portion of the process. The endless work put in for auditions creates better musicians, and in the end, that is just as much a reward for the Northwest Music Department as making the group. 

Strohmaier voiced, “It’s really easy to allow one’s self-worth to get tied up into one judge’s opinion of three minutes of your life, so we try to really stress the importance of the process and the improvement that you make and how you grow from July to October.”

Similarly, Daubitz explained, “The philosophy of our program is that the Allstate process is an opportunity to develop better musicianship and to build skills that can then return to the curricular ensembles…making the choir is just that extra cherry on top for us.”

For those who have made the group, all of the hard work they have poured into their audition will later be displayed for an audience at the festival itself.

Knowles expressed, “I’ve never cried for the results ever in the past three years, and even when I got principal my junior year…Making Allstate for four years has just been a goal of mine ever since I made it freshman year. It was kind of surreal [so] I did shed a few tears.”

Steenhard also emoted, “It’s just hard when you find out someone hasn’t made it, but then also very, very exciting when someone has made it or has made orchestra.”

After auditions, the students that make the choir get the weeks before the festival to rest and recover. Meanwhile, band and orchestra students have to go through a series of chair auditions throughout these weeks or on the first day of the festival to determine their rankings within their sections and respective parts. 

Because Knowles was the principal flutist of the orchestra last year, she was deemed the best flute player at the festival. This, in turn, makes chair auditions and placements even more crucial for her.

Knowles shared, “It is what it is, but I’m definitely nervous just because I have nowhere to go but down.”

Knowles noted, “Being somewhere new and seeing all these new people from different backgrounds [that] all care about the music, my freshman year especially, just raised my level immediately.”

Similarly, Ganti explained, “Just enjoy it. Don’t compare yourself to the people around you because you’ll hear a lot of other great singers…know that it’s all of your hard work paying off, and it’s a testament to your abilities.”

The festival concludes on Saturday. The morning allows the musicians to rest before a night of photos, getting ready, and ultimately showing what their endless drive has resulted in. The performance on Saturday opens with a patriotic piece sung by the choir and accompanied by the band. This is followed up with the band’s respective performance and then the orchestra’s. The choir will then perform their selections and end the concert accompanied by the orchestra in a second patriotic piece. At the festival, many things are to be learned for all students, but especially underclassmen or those newer to the experience as a whole. 

Gibbs explained, “I think I’m more confident and I feel like I can be singing to my full extent when I’m around other people.”

Additionally, Steenhard commented, “I’ve learned that just because you are disappointed in something doesn’t mean you can stop working or lose motivation. Just because you don’t sound as good as you think you should doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to make it…just don’t be too hard on yourself.”

After the festival, many musicians find themselves continuing to work at their art, whether it be in concert band or choir, extracurriculars, or many other opportunities the Northwest Music Department provides. These experiences are all adding up and continuing to prepare students for July when the process starts all over again. 

Daubitz finalized, “At the end of the day, there is a lot of talent these kids have, and my job is to just foster and nurture that and to make sure that they feel empowered…it’s the kids who deserve all of the credit”

All in all, the Allstate festival process is nothing short of mentally and emotionally exhausting. The endless passion and hard work these young musicians display contribute to the drive taught through this experience. If anything can be learned from these students, it is the idea that with enough willingness to grow and the determination to develop a steady drive, anything can happen.