By encompassing a selected assortment of students, the All-State music programs serve to create distinguished ensembles of high school students.

For the 2023-2024 school year, 18 Lafayette students were selected to be in one of the five groups: All-State Concert Band, All-State Symphonic Orchestra, All-State Jazz Band, All-State Choir and All-State Collective.

“I think if you go and look at the board, historically, [this is] the most [Lafayette’s] had in All-State ensembles,” band teacher Brad Balog said.

Due to the groups being at a state level, Balog said competition gets cutthroat.

“All-State Concert Band had about 110 spots, and the All-State Jazz Band [had] 22 spots,” Balog said.

Out of 16 students who were eligible to audition for All-State Band or Orchestra, one student made it into the All-State Band, with four honorable mentions.

As part of the auditioning process, students find out if they qualified for an All-State group only a few hours after auditioning.

“It’s in Colombia, and auditions start at 7:30 a.m. so you want to get there early. I was the 16th to go. In the first room, you have two scales and an excerpt, and another room with the last two excerpts. After that, you’re done, so you go home and then we got our results around 4:15 p.m.,” violin 1 qualifier sophomore Sarah Mu said.

However, the audition process itself looks different across the board. As a 2-year-old program, the All-State Collective has a distinct difference from the other All-State ensembles.

“When you are dealing with the collective, you put in an application and in that application, you submit two different songs. The first song is completely original to you, showcasing your talent and ability. [For] the second song, we give you a chord progression and then you have to take that chord progression and show us what you can do within the parameters we’ve set,” guitar teacher Traci Bolton said.

When students are accepted into the programs, strict rules are put in place to maintain professionalism.

“They have to make sure [qualifiers] are on time for every rehearsal and every performance. If they are even a minute late, they get excused from the group,” choir teacher Linda Shaffer said.

Through multiple Zoom meetings and lengthy in-person rehearsals throughout the year, the state-level music groups will perform in a full State Music Convention at the end of January.

“The collective will be down there Monday and Tuesday with their performance on Wednesday. Concert Band, Jazz Band and Orchestra start all-day rehearsals Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, then Saturday morning and the concert’s on Saturday afternoon,” Balog said.

Balog says as more students qualify for All-State, it helps Lafayette’s ensembles develop as well.

“There’s the side that we haven’t even talked about is all these kids go and do all of these experiences and when they bring it back to Lafayette, it’s something that helps our programs grow too,” Balog said