Beginning today and ending late Saturday afternoon, approximately 4,500 Missouri high school students will converge on University of Missouri's Columbia campus for State Music Festival. Vocalists and instrumentalists will arrive to perform solo and small ensemble pieces and be judged on a scale of "I" to "V," with "I" being the best.

My more recent experiences with this event were as a college student. For MU music students, state festival is a weekend to be dreaded. Already limited parking becomes a nightmare, practice rooms in the Fine Arts Building are overrun and you have to find time in your overly full schedule to volunteer at the festival. Loud, high-strung teenagers are everywhere! The one redeeming factor: music classes are often cancelled because the classrooms are used for performances.

As a high school student, however, state festival means something entirely different. It is still a weekend of stress, but a stress of your own making. It is a time to be nervous: even though you've played the music until you hate it, there is still a possibility of making errors. What if you forget a part (music sometimes must be memorized), what if you get sick, what if you have technical difficulties with your instrument? Two of those three happened to me, by the way. State festival is a time to be excited or possibly disappointed, and it is a time to showcase many months of practicing.

Getting a "I" rating at state festival is a big deal. Only those students who received "I" ratings at districts are even eligible to compete (though it's not a competition against others, only yourself). I worked hard and received "I"s two years at state. Competing at this level requires a high level of discipline and attention to musical detail. It helps foster teamwork, for those competing in ensembles, and poise, among other things.

I am pleased to say that students from Marshall are taking part in State Music Festival this year, though I don't know how many. I hope to publish their results in the newspaper because these achievements are truly impressive and should not be overlooked.