The Oak Park symphonic orchestra buckled down last week and headed to contest. They were determined to redeem themselves from last year’s events. As a fellow violinist, we had worked so hard and played, what we thought was our best.  Unfortunately, we took home a 2 rating on our performance pieces, instead of the 1 rating we had so desperately wanted.

This year we started practicing very early. As soon as we were done with Christmas music, we almost immediately jumped into contest pieces. We worked day in and day out. Putting in the effort was half the battle; we had playing test on smart music. Students had to record themselves at home and submit the takes so orchestra director Erick Theno could tell who was practicing and who wasn’t.  I think this really helped us realize that this was a team effort.

When the day finally came, nerves started to set in. We didn’t want to let each other and Theno down. We had stepped onto the stage and played our hearts out. As a senior, this was very bittersweet. We then moved onto the site reading portion. We practiced site reading a lot in class so we of course nailed it.

After waiting for about two hours we finally got our results handed to us. Theno’s face looked disappointed so we all let our hopes down. It wasn’t until we got on the bus, when he screamed that we had earned two 1 ratings. We were over joyed and relieved, our hard work had paid off.

This is the first time in awhile that Oak Park orchestra had received a one rating.

Theno said, “It looks like the time you were given a 1 was way back when Mr. Hale was teaching.”

This had to be more than 8 years ago. We are all glad to have earned the long time coming 1 rating.