Cardinal High School may have been one of the smallest schools represented at the annual Ohio Music Education Association District 7 Solo & Ensemble competition at Madison High School on Jan. 17, but still achieved favorable results as five soloists and the Cardinal Saxophone Ensemble received the highest marks.
“I think that everybody involved did fantastic,” Cardinal 7-12 instrumental Band Director Frank Sanzo told The Weekly Villager on Feb. 12. “My students were working very hard for months prior to this and I think it really paid off. A lot of these students have never done something like this before, they have never played a solo in front of people and some of them have never played in an ensemble. It was really awesome for them to do.”
For the second straight year, Cardinal had several students competing at the OMEA Event, an annual competition that takes place among all of the schools in the Greater Cleveland area and enables high school band members to further enhance their music skills.
Participating students had the option of performing a solo musical composition or in an ensemble, and Cardinal had six students who performed as soloists and also had a saxophone ensemble qualify for the event.
Each musical composition was graded on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being the highest rating and a 5 grading as the lowest. Of the five solo performances, four were awarded a rating of 1, while one earned a grade of 2 and the Cardinal Saxophone Ensemble received a rating of 2.
Each participant had the option of performing in Class A, B, or C, three different categories that were based on the difficulty of the pieces performed with Class C being the most difficult.
Of Cardinal’s six performances, three were in the Class A category and each solo composition received a grade of 1.
The five solo instrumental performances consisted of senior Emma Clingan, who performed Jacques Ibert’s Histoire on the alto saxophone in the Class A category and received a 1 rating, freshman John Loving performed Newell Long’s Undercurrent on the baritone saxophone in Class A and earned a 1 rating, sophomore Carson Davis earned a grade of 1 for his rendition Eugene Novotney’s A Minute of News on the snare drum in Class A, senior R.J. Miller was awarded a rating of 1 for her performance of Floyd O. Harris’ Little Fiesta on the tuba in Class C, and senior Zoey Homa’s rendition of J. Donjon’s Pan Pasorale playing the flue netted her a rating of 2 in Class B.
“I have seen Class A solos that could be just as hard as Class C solos,” noted Sanzo. “I see Class C solos that could be just as hard as Class A solos. It is really just how the Ohio Music Education Association classifies them so regardless of class I am still proud of my class equally.”
For the first time in school history, Cardinal entered a saxophone ensemble, consisting of six performers. Juniors Kara Everett, Alaina Hickcox, and senior Lucas Gresch performed on alto saxophones, while senior Grayson Yoder and Clingan performed on the tenor saxophone, and Loving performed on the baritone saxophone and the sextet of saxophonists received a rating of 2 for their rendition of Harold L. Walters’ Moonrise in Class C.
“Six saxophone members and no accompaniment is what that basically boils down to,” added Sanzo. “They were entirely on their own. I did not even conduct them, they were entirely independent, played this piece, did all of their cutoffs together, listened to each other together, played it together and got a score as high as they did, I think that it is pretty phenomenal.”
According to Sanzo, as thrilling as it was to witness his students receive top marks for their renditions at competition, he was prouder of the fact that Cardinal sent double the number of student-musicians to the event than they did the year prior, a testament of the growing interest of musical studies and participation.
After seeing several students be graded as highly as they were, Sanzo said that he hopes that the graduating seniors take this opportunity to keep studying music when they leave Cardinal and that the returning studenxts can use this experience as motivation.
“I hope that it not only motivates them to stay in band and to keep going but for kids who did not participate this year to see how well their peers did and maybe be motivated enough to participate as well,” he said. “The goal is to continue moving forward and up and increasing numbers in the future years.”
